Kudos for new Integrity members By Ria Taitt Political Editor Trinidad Express Newspaper President Anthony Carmona yesterday announced the four members of the Integrity Commission who would have to work under the chairmanship of Ken Gordon. Gordon told the Express last night that he was pleased that the commissioners are to be appointed. He declined to make any evaluation of the Commission or to comment on any of the issues related to the controversy over his chairmanship. The release from the Office of the President stated that the oath of office would be administered to the new members of the Commission “soon”. As reported by the Express yesterday, the four commissioners are Justice Sebastion Ventour (retired), chartered accountant Seunarine Jokhoo, petroleum and environmental engineer Deonarine Jaggernauth and ophthalmologist and surgeon Dr Shelly-Anne Lalchan. MP and former minister Herbert Volney commended the President on the “excellent choice” of Ventour. Volney said he knew Ventour from the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies in Barbados since the 1970s when they read law together. “He has always been a very serious man, a scholarly man, a good family man and a God-fearing man. No one can question his integrity and as a judge he performed at a high standard. I am elated as a former colleague, both as a former fellow student and as a colleague judge, to know that he would be on the Integrity Commission. I want to commend His Excellency on the excellent choice he has made for the nation,” Volney said. The President’s release said Justice Ventour has had a distinguished 34-year legal career. He was senior partner at the law firm of Fitzwilliam, Stone, Furness-Smith and Morgan; a judge in the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago for 14 years; and also served at the Law Association, both as a secretary and as a member of the disciplinary committee. Ventour currently lectures at Hugh Wooding Law School, St Augustine, where he has taught for 22 years. He is married with three children, the release said. On the appointment of Lalchan, fellow-ophthalmologist Dr Anirudh Mahabir said: “We are delighted. She is a highly-professional ophthalmologist. She has been in it (the profession) for a number of years, having served in England in a very senior position. I think she is an excellent person to be a commissioner. I endorse her 100 per cent.” Lalchan, the release stated, is a fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, member of the American Academy of Ophthalmologists, member of the International Society of Glaucoma Surgery and founder of the West Indian Society of Glaucoma Surgeons (WINGS). The release said that having spent the majority of her medical career practising in the United Kingdom, Lalchan has returned home where she is currently in private practice. She is also an Associate Lecturer in Post-graduate Ophthalmology with the University of the West Indies at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mount Hope. Lalchan, who is “quietly engaged in social work in her professional area of expertise”, is married to a medical doctor and is the mother of one, the release said. The release said Jaggernauth, who has given 33 years of service to Petrotrin (formerly Trintoc), would be retiring in a few weeks. Jaggernauth is a researcher who has published many papers and received several awards, including the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Distinguished Member Award in 2005. A part-time lecturer at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), he is also vice-president of Trintoc Penal Credit Union and a lay-minister at St Benedict’s Roman Catholic Church. Jokhoo is the returning member of the Commission, having previously been appointed to serve a three-year term on March 15, 2010. The chartered accountant has a 35-year history in the public service, from which he retired as director of State Enterprises and Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The release said Jokhoo also worked in the private sector as financial controller of Amar Holdings Limited, general manager and director of Citrus Growers Association and executive chairman of National Fisheries Company Limited. The President’s release made no mention of chairman Gordon. But President Carmona’s silence suggests that he has resisted pressure to force Gordon out of office. Gordon’s decision to meet Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley at his personal residence last month has triggered criticism, especially from the Government and other elements in the society.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 12:37:43 +0000
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