Integrity Commission Chair ‘Manipulated’ Vote
John Briceño
Briceño said that a Government he leads will change the Act to ensure that no political party has an overall majority on the Commission, which would also be expanded to include non-political elements such as a member of the Judiciary. But how does he explain why one of the members he appointed to the current Commission, accountant Claudet Grinage, ended up voting in favour of the one-year proposal despite continuing to support and initially voting for the five-year proposal? Briceño blames manipulation on the part of Commission Chair Marilyn Williams.
John Briceño, P.U.P. Leader
“What he did not say is that the chairlady of the Commission went to great lengths not to accommodate one of our Commissioners, Miss Mahler, to be at that meeting, because the meeting was set, and then that date was changed to date when Miss Mahler couldn’t go; Miss Mahler asked for it to be changed to another date, and they refused; she asked then that the meeting be held in the afternoon, not in the morning; and they refused, because they deliberately did not want Miss Mahler to be at that meeting. Because in the first meeting, it was Miss Mahler that fought vigorously to convince two Commissioners to take their position for there to be reporting from 2011, because from the beginning the Chair was pushing for it to be one year. It is only then after that, when it was the very same ministers – you know when Mr. Finnegan was talking about not making this political, they were the ones that were making it political, because they were the ones who were in uproar when they got that letter. And as I have been told, there was big ‘railing-up’ in the Cabinet; because ministers are not prepared to file their reports, so they have started to interfere. And they made sure that they have another meeting, and worked it in such a way that Miss Mahler could not have been there to explain to them legally.”
Williams was not available today for comment when we contacted her office in Belize City.
