TRINIDAD GUARDIAN – Ten days after it was appointed, the Integrity Commission is no more.
Retired Industrial Court member Gladys Gafoor, the remaining member of a five-man commission, tendered her resignation to President’s House in St Ann’s around 10 am Monday.

“But the letter was ready since Friday,” she said Monday in a brief telephone interview from her home. It is the first time in the history of T&T that a commission appointed by the President has collapsed, mere days after its creation.

Gafoor, a former vice-president of the Industrial Court, said she had spoken to a vacationing President George Maxwell Richards via telephone about her decision a few days ago. Insisting she was not pressured to resign, Gafoor said, “I resigned in order to give the President a free hand in appointing a new commission and that is my only reason.” Gafoor said after the resignation of chartered accountant Lylla Bada, who called it quits for personal reasons, she realised that the commission could not function.

Gafoor’s resignation has effectively shattered the much-touted Integrity Commission, which members were sworn in by President Richards on May 1. The commission, however, had been steeped in controversy from its inception.

Meanwhile, the T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce called Monday for a thorough examination of the processes, systems and procedures of the Integrity Commission.

The organisation said it viewed “very seriously” the resignations of the five nationals appointed by the President “all of whom have handed back their warrants of appointment within a short space of time.”