President: Your job is your reward

People serving in public office may have to find their reward from their own knowledge of a job well done, President Paula-Mae Weekes has suggested.

She was speaking yesterday at President’s House during the swearing-in ceremony of Equal Opportunities Tribunal chairman Donna Prowell-Raphael and members of the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) chaired by banker Dr Ronald Ramkissoon.

Weekes welcomed all to what she quipped was a “mass swearing-in,” prompting subdued giggles. “It’s a good opportunity to allow you to get together,” she said.

Alluding to her former career as an attorney and then judge, she said the setting was, “almost like the courthouse” as she recalled knowing Prowell-Raphael from the courts and Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon from their days at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus in Barbados.

Weekes said she knew Ramkissoon by reputation, while some appointees she knew not at all.

“But if resumés and good looks are anything to go by, the commissions are in good hands,” she said, prompting further giggles.

“So I thank you for your willingness to serve. As we all know, times are a little challenging and that’s what makes the work all the more important.

“There is little that can be more gratifying at the end of the day than to know you have served your country faithfully and well.” Weekes urged all to be unfazed if they don’t receive gratitude for their service. “Never mind that. You will have your satisfaction from doing your duty.” The other FTC members sworn in were SM Jaleel director and physician Dr Mikaeel Mohammed, business analyst Denis Scott and attorney Christopher Sieuchand, while an absent Dr Ariele John will take her oath when she returns to TT.

Ramkissoon told reporters the FTC’s role is to make the nation’s businesses aware of the benefits of healthy competition and conversely of the harm by the operation of cartels engaged in activities such as price-fixing. Asked if there are any indices by which success is measured, FTC executive director Beval Narinesingh said success would be reflected in any improvement in the country’s ease of doing business, although other factors would also contribute to such a rise.