Police: Marlene not above the law

ASSISTANT Superintendent (ASP) Roger Alexander said the arrest of Marlene Mc Donald should signal that no one is above the law.

Alexander during his daily Beyond the Tape on TV6 said the public should take note of what happened and while the matter is being investigated, they should also not speculate.

McDonald and her partner, Michael Carew, were arrested at their Valley View, Maracas/St Joseph home and taken to the St Joseph Police Station where they remained up to last night. Police visited the couple’s home around 7 am and took the duo to the Fraud Squad before transferring them to the St Joseph Police Station.

Police said their arrest is linked to the Calabar Foundation ran by Carew. The affiliation to the foundation led to two Integrity Commission investigations, a police investigations and her removal as a minister.

Mc Donald is no stranger to controversy. She was axed as housing minister in March 2016 after questions were raised about her behaviour as a minister toward her companion. The first issue raised was that she, while being minister of community development, allegedly arranged for Carew to be given a HDC house in Fidelis Heights, St Augustine, in 2008. There were also queries over donations from the Ministry of Community Development in 2010 of $375,000 and $200,000 plus another sum to the Calabar Foundation while McDonald was still in charge of the ministry. Carew was said to be a Calabar director at the time. The Integrity Commission exonerated McDonald in December 2013 on the Calabar Foundation issue but both concerns were raised again in 2015 when she became housing minister.

McDonald, at the time, assured all was above board and managed to hold on to her portfolio until early 2016 when further questions were raised about her relationship with Carew. In March of that year, it was found that McDonald had employed both Carew and his brother Lennox to work at her Port of Spain South constituency office from June 2010 to September 2015, a clear breach of parliamentary rules.

That new revelation along with the previous allegations proved to be too much for McDonald to withstand and the Prime Minister revoked her appointment later that month.

Her next stint as a government minister came in June 2017, 15 months after she was fired. Both police and the Integrity Commission had investigated her and she had been cleared by the commission for a second time in six years on the Calabar issue. At the time Rowley claimed he had “no difficulty” in reappointing her as the commission had found no basis that she breached the Integrity of Public Life Act.

This time, McDonald’s appointment as minister of public utilities lasted all of two days after she was photographed with Cedric “Burkie” Burke – a Sea Lots businessman who was arrested and later freed of being a gang leader in 2011 during the state of emergency. Two days later, without ever having set foot in her new ministry, she was removed again by Dr. Rowley. She was given a third ministerial stint in March this year.

On his decision to re-appoint her as Public Administration Minister, the portfolio she currently has, Rowley said: “Ms McDonald can make a valuable contribution to the ministry and I am confident that she will meritoriously perform the duties required as a minister in the ministry.”

Speaking with CNC3 on Thursday Rowley said he would await the outcome of the investigation before he acted, to do otherwise would be speculative.