If any employee at the Office of the President is found to be engaged in a conflict of interest situation, he/she will be displaced.
That is according to Gregory Serrette, who is the Secretary to President Anthony Carmona.
Serrette said that in response to questions during yesterday’s meeting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee at J Hamilton Maurice Room, Tower D International Waterfront Centre, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain.
The committee is chaired by House Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George.
The marathon meeting examined the Office of the President’s expenditure and internal audit controls for Inventory Control, Internal Audit, Accountability and Transparency, among other things.
Serrette was the leader of the team from the Office of the President. He said while there was no written conflict of interest policy at the Office of the President, it was dealt with on the basis of best practice.
Committee member, Nicole Olivierre, asked for an explanation of how a possible conflict of interest situation would be handled at the Office of the President. Serrette said while there was “not a written policy, if any situation arise we would be able to arrest the situation based on best practices.”
Olliviere then asked if any relatives working at the Office of the President was required to declare his/her interest in any particular project, Serrette said “yes.”
He quickly added that even if the person did not come forward other officers will do so if they observe a conflict of interest.
He said no conflict of interest situation has ever happened. He said if a conflict of interest situation involves a contractor “we will stop the contract or if it is with employment well we’ll have to release the person.”
Asked to comment on what measures the Office of the President intends to implement in the wake of reduced financial resources, Serrette said, initially that there would be job cuts and pay cuts.
Later he said functions will be held at Napa and not at other venues, catering will be done in house and there will also be a reduction in the number of functions hosted by the President.
In response to a question from Public Administration and Communications Minister, Maxie Cuffie, the senior legal officer at the Office of the President Shoshanna Lall said the President and others formed a committee to select certain contract employees at the Office of the President.
Lall said: “Applications were sent in and the accounting officer at the time and the President and other officers would have sat on an interviewing process and selected officers to be employed in contract positions and so it did not comply with the CPO circular because the positions required to be advertised before selection.”