PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad--The Cabinet minister who last week lost her position over breach of Parliament rules is now the subject of a police investigation.
Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams made the disclosure Saturday without giving details about the probe into Marlene McDonald, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Port of Spain South and former Minister of Housing and Urban Development.
McDonald was replaced as Health Minister by Randall Mitchell, following reports that she employed her common-law husband Michael Carew and his brother Lennox Carew at her constituency office, in breach of Parliament rules.
Head of the activist group Fixin T&T Kirk Waithe had raised the issue about the Carews’ employment and had also written to Commissioner Williams requesting that a criminal investigation be launched into the Calabar Foundation – of which the brothers were directors – which received payments from the Ministry of Community Development in 2010 when McDonald headed that Ministry.
McDonald had also been accused of misusing her ministerial power, back in 2008, to get a Housing Development Corporation house for Carew.
Speaking after a panel discussion on the state of the economy, Williams confirmed a probe had started but declined to say what allegations were being investigated.
Meantime, the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) has dismissed calls from the Opposition for McDonald to step down as the parliamentary representative for Port of Spain South.
Following a meeting of the party’s general council Saturday, PNM chairman Franklin Khan said McDonald would stay on as an MP and deputy political leader.
But the PNM called on Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to step down after it surfaced that she also hired two relatives at her constituency office.
Persad-Bissessar claimed Saturday that her hiring did not breach any law, but said she had written to the Clerk of the House to seek clarification on the matter. ~ Caribbean360 ~
