MASSIVE COVER-UP

THERE was a concerted effort to cover-up allegations of sexual harassment against former sports minister Darryl Smith, according to the findings of the three-woman committee set up by the Prime Minister.

In a four-page letter to Smith from the Office of the Prime Minister, signed by Permanent Secretary (PS) to the PM Maurice Suite, Smith was told his accuser was credible and “certainly deserved for it (her claims of sexual harassment) to be taken seriously.” The letter, dated August 10, 2018, asked Smith to respond to the findings no later than August 30, 2018. It added that he should consider getting legal advice.

The letter said the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs “from beginning to end” tried to cover up the allegations.

Smith was reassigned from Sport to the Housing Ministry in a Cabinet reshuffle on on April 9, 2018, but was fired the following day after the Prime Minister reportedly received further information on Moreau's dismissal.

The committee, appointed after Smith was fired, was chaired by former permanent secretary and human resource expert Jacqueline Wilson and included Folade Mutota, director of the Women's Institute for Alternative Development (WINAD) and attorney Elaine Greene.

The committee was appointed in April last year to: (a) review the circumstances surrounding the dismissal and payment of compensation to Carrie-Ann Moreau and the allegations of alleged sexual harassment made against Smith; and (b) probe the circumstances surrounding the allegations of alleged sexual harassment made against Smith by Moreau.

The review came after Newsday reported that the Ministry of Sport had paid $150,000 to Moreau, Smith’s former personal assistant, to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit. It is alleged that Moreau’s firing came after she complained of sexual harassment by Smith.

The report was completed and submitted to Dr Rowley on June 4 last year. The committee found, on the first part of its mandate, that Moreau told Karen Edwards on December 18, 2015 that she had been harassed. At the same time, a more serious allegation was made to someone identified as “Ms Goodridge.” The committee found there were no appropriate procedures in place to deal with the complaint.

“We find, on balance, that PS Mendez alerted the former minister to the allegations made against him prior to Moreau’s termination. Two other instances of inappropriate conduct by the former minister, which we are prepared to treat as consensual, were also reported to PS Mendez.”

On the second mandate, the committee found the allegations of sexual harassment: “were known or made known to all interested parties namely the former minister, PS Mendez, Ms Joseph, Mr Quamina, (Deputy) PS Arneaud and PS Ramdahin at an early stage of their respective involvement in the matter, ie prior to any settlement being negotiated. PS Mendez certainly knew of the allegations for some time prior to Moreau’s termination.”

The women said, according to Suite’s letter, they did not accept that Smith was unaware of the allegations made against him.

“We do not accept that PS Mendez advised the former minister of the allegations only after Moreau was terminated.”

The committee said it rejected that Smith did not mention to “Mr Quamina,” when he solicited his assistance, that Moreau had made allegations of sexual harassment against him. The committee added that there was no need for Quamina to get involved if this was so, as it was Mendez who had fired Moreau. The letter added that “it appears to us that there was a concerted effort to sanitise the matter of any reference to the allegations of sexual harassment and to treat the matter as an orthodox claim of unfair dismissal.

“It is our view that all relevant persons concerned in forging the settlement of Moreau’s trade dispute hid behind the above patent yet benign circumstances of Moreau’s termination as a means of disguising the true nature of the dispute” the letter to Smith said, adding that Smith’s desire for Moreau to sign a non-disclosure agreement was unjustified.

Since the report was compiled and submitted it has not been made public. Rowley, speaking on i95 FM two weeks ago said the report could not be made public, as it made findings against Smith, who had not been given the opportunity to respond to them before it was submitted.

Rowley said then: “The permanent secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office sent that report to Mr Smith, who brought his lawyers in. And the position is that the persons who did that report, the investigation to produce that report, they made findings...by that I mean they came to a conclusion negatively about Mr Smith – without talking to him."

The sentiments were repeated by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, who said he sought advice from Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, and Mendes supported Rowley's stance that the report was unusable, as natural justice was not followed.

In June last year Smith's successor in the Sport Ministry Shamfa Cudjoe said the committee was giving the people affected by the findings of its report a chance to respond to it.

Kirk Waithe, head of activist group Fixin' T&T, filed a freedom of information application yesterday seeking the terms of reference for the three-woman committee.

Details of the “useless” report are also being sought by political activist and former UNC minister Devant Maharaj, who filed an FOIA request last November. It was denied on March 19. He later filed for judicial review seeking leave to challenge the Office of the Prime Minister’s refusal to disclose the report.