PNM calls for probe into Padarath’s conduct in Parliament

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is call­ing for a crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the con­duct of Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness Bar­ry Padarath dur­ing pro­ceed­ings of the Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee on Thurs­day evening.

In a state­ment is­sued on June 12, the Op­po­si­tion con­demned what it de­scribed as Mr Padarath’s con­duct fol­low­ing com­plaints from Gov­ern­ment mem­bers that their mi­cro­phones had been mut­ed dur­ing a pe­ri­od of cross-talk in the Cham­ber.

Ac­cord­ing to the PNM, Gov­ern­ment mem­bers raised con­cerns about their mi­cro­phones and made al­le­ga­tions that Par­lia­men­tary staff were bi­ased against the Gov­ern­ment.

The Op­po­si­tion de­fend­ed Par­lia­men­tary staff, say­ing they have con­sis­tent­ly main­tained an apo­lit­i­cal and pro­fes­sion­al ap­proach to their du­ties while serv­ing gov­ern­ments and op­po­si­tions re­gard­less of po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion.

The PNM al­leged that af­ter the com­plaints were raised, Mr Padarath left the Gov­ern­ment bench and ap­proached a Par­lia­men­tary au­dio tech­ni­cian, where he took a pho­to­graph of the staff mem­ber in full view of Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment and ob­servers.

“There can be no le­git­i­mate jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for such con­duct,” the par­ty said.

The PNM ar­gued that when a se­nior Gov­ern­ment min­is­ter pub­licly sin­gles out a Par­lia­men­tary staff mem­ber af­ter al­le­ga­tions of bias have been made, it cre­ates the ap­pear­ance of in­tim­i­da­tion di­rect­ed at a pub­lic of­fi­cer car­ry­ing out his du­ties.

The par­ty said Par­lia­men­tary staff must be able to per­form their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties free from fear, ha­rass­ment, pres­sure or po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence.

It fur­ther claimed the in­ci­dent rep­re­sent­ed an es­ca­la­tion in what it de­scribed as the Gov­ern­ment’s in­creas­ing­ly hos­tile ap­proach to in­de­pen­dent in­sti­tu­tions and pub­lic ser­vants.

The Op­po­si­tion called for an im­me­di­ate crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion to de­ter­mine whether Mr Padarath’s ac­tions amount­ed to in­tim­i­da­tion of a pub­lic of­fi­cer in the ex­e­cu­tion of his du­ties.

It al­so urged au­thor­i­ties to pre­serve and re­view Par­lia­men­tary CCTV footage, broad­cast record­ings and oth­er au­dio­vi­su­al records from the Cham­ber, say­ing the in­ci­dent oc­curred in full view of Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment, Par­lia­men­tary staff and mem­bers of the pub­lic.

The PNM al­so called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to re­move Mr Padarath, the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Cou­va North, from the po­si­tion of Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness.

The par­ty said the of­fice car­ries a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect the in­tegri­ty, dig­ni­ty and in­de­pen­dence of Par­lia­ment and those who serve it.

“By his ac­tions this evening, Mr. Padarath abused the au­thor­i­ty of that of­fice, brought it in­to dis­re­pute and demon­strat­ed a lev­el of con­duct whol­ly in­con­sis­tent with the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties of Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness,” the state­ment said.

The PNM main­tained that Par­lia­ment be­longs to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go and said no Par­lia­men­tary em­ploy­ee should feel threat­ened, tar­get­ed or pres­sured by a mem­ber of the Ex­ec­u­tive while car­ry­ing out their du­ties.

The par­ty said it would con­tin­ue to de­fend the in­tegri­ty, in­de­pen­dence and dig­ni­ty of Par­lia­ment and its staff.