By Clint Chan Tack Saturday, March 6 2010

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PM in the House: Prime Minister Patrick Manning in the Parliament yesterday....

ONE WEEK after escaping being referred to the Privileges Committee for statements he made against Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar about purchasing a store, Prime Minister Patrick Manning was yesterday referred to the committee by Speaker Barry Sinanan. In doing so, Sinanan agreed with Persad-Bissessar that a prima facie case of breach of privilege had been made out against Manning for comments he made while delivering a statement in the House of Representatives last Friday about Church/State relations.

Speaking in the House, Persad-Bissessar invoked Standing Order 27(2) to claim that Manning had misled the House. Persad-Bissessar argued that Manning “knew or ought to have known” that the former UNC government never gave 25 acres of land to a Baptist group.

She said Manning’s statement was untrue because two Baptist groups were given land and not one as Manning claimed and “the truth is that it was less than five acres of land that was given to each group and not 25 acres.”

Persad-Bissessar submitted copies of two memoranda of leases to support her case. The documents, both dated March 29, 2000, indicated that two parcels of land, each less than five acres, were leased by the Orange Grove National Company to the Committee for the Council of Elders of the Spiritual Baptist (Shouters) Faith of Trinidad and Tobago and the National Congress of Incorporated Baptist Organisations of TT respectively.

Persad-Bissessar said for Manning to make such a statement, he would have had to make “enquiries about Cabinet records showing organisations which had been given lands by the State in the past.” She added that as “head of the Cabinet,” Manning “knew or ought to have known” that his statement about the lands allocated to these groups was untrue. In making his ruling, Sinanan said: “In considering this matter I had cause to refresh my memory on the ruling that I had given on Friday November 5, 2008.” Sinanan explained that for an act of misleading the House to be deliberate, “there must be something in the nature of the incorrect statement that indicates an intention to mislead.” He said such a situation “will more readily arise” when a Member of Parliament can be assumed to have personal knowledge of the facts “in a situation of some formality”.

Citing personal explanations and statements by ministers as examples of such a situation, Sinanan recalled that Manning’s remarks qualified under the category “statements by ministers”.

“I consider sufficient, that which was raised by the Member for Siparia, for this matter to be referred to the Committee of Privileges for its examination and report. I so rule,” he declared. The Government commands the majority on the committee which consists of Sinanan, PNM MPs Pennelope Beckles, Colm Imbert and Christine Kangaloo, UNC MPs Dr Roodal Moonilal, Dr Tim Gopeesingh and Persad-Bissessar. Persad-Bissessar will have to recuse herself from the committee.