San Fernando: Form
er Prime Minister Patrick Manning will not be receiving a salary as Member of Parliament for San Fernando East for the next month following his suspension from the House of Representatives, having been found to have breached the privileges of Parliament following comments he made on the funding of the prime minister's private residence.
Mr Manning had alleged in Parliament that drug money was used in the construction.
Members of the House of Representatives voted late last night to suspend the former prime minister who only last week celebrated 40 years of continuous services as a member of parliament, following the findings of parliament's Priviliges Committee.
Mr Manning is currently in Cuba seeking medical treatment for a heart problem he developed several years ago.
Leader of Government Business in the House of Representatives, Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal says that according to precedence, the suspended member will not be paid but that the parliament will continue to pay the salaries of staff of the constitutency office.
Constituents are to hold a silent meeting at the San Fernando East constituency office at 4.30 today. The constituents issued a statement this morning expressing their disappointment in the ruling of the parliament.
The statement is as follows:
The Executive and Membership of San Fernando East Constituency take this opportunity to publicly indicate our displeasure in having our voice silenced by the suspension from the Parliament of our Member of Parliament Mr. Patrick Augustus Mervyn Manning. The unwarranted denial of Mr. Manning’s right to a proper process of representation and hearing is a clear indication of blatant dictatorial actions of this dysfunctional UNC lead coalition.
It is unfortunate that the only option this dysfunctional administration can find, in an attempt to create a smoke screen to change the headlines, was to suspend our Member of Parliament and silence the voice of the people’s duly elected representative for San Fernando East.
The attempted smoke screen was to deflect public attention away from, among other major misdeeds, the award of the questionable 40 million dollar National Petroleum fuel delivery contract, which it is alleged, was awarded to a very close acquaintance of the Honorable Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar. It is also alleged that the Honorable Prime Minister slept at the preferred bidder’s residence after the May 24th, 2010 general election. It appears that this government bulldozed their way into office to enrich themselves and supporters.
They are truly on a dictatorial path and have no intention of following proper Parliamentary procedures and or the Laws of Trinidad & Tobago, as outlined in our Constitution. There were numerous examples of flagrant errors of Parliamentary procedures, breaches of Privilege Committee’s protocol and violation of our Constitution. All of which have been highlighted clearly by the Member for San Fernando East and other Opposition Members, but which have been disregarded by the UNC lead administration.
The San Fernando East Executive and Membership are in full support of our Parliamentary Representative being able to properly defend himself and be allowed legal representation in any matter before the Privilege’s Committee or Courts of Trinidad and Tobago, and demand that he be return to Parliament immediately.
The San Fernando East Constituency again confirms our commitment of full support to our Member of Parliament for San Fernando East, The Honorable Mr. Patrick Augustus Mervyn Manning and our Political Leader The Honorable Dr. Keith Rowley.
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