Young: Mark not consistent

Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young yesterday did not accept Opposition Senator Wade Mark’s explanation that he made a “syntax error” during a public hearing of the Land and Physical Infrastructure Joint Select Committee (JSC) on Monday.

At the post-Cabinet news conference on Thursday, Young said Mark attempted to mislead the public when he was questioning suspended acting TT Inter-Island Transport Company CEO Leon Grant about an e-mail address. He said Grant’s e-mail address, as listed in a document which Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley read into the record at the hearing, was “leong@patnt.com.”

Young said Mark claimed the e-mail address was leong@patt.com.

On Thursday, Mark said it was a syntax error.

However, speaking before he left the Caribbean Security Forum at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain, Young said there was no consistency between Mark’s explanation and his actions at the hearing, and anyone who examines the video footage would see that Mark “was the one leading the question.”

Young said, “I think the population must measure Senator Mark.”

On Thursday, Young rejected Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s claims that he acted improperly in accompanying Rowley to the JSC hearing. Young said it demonstrated that Persad-Bissessar did not understand the role of an MP.

Rowley described Mark’s actions as reprehensible and said had Parliament not been prorogued on Thursday, a matter of privilege would have been raised against him.