Seukeran steals show from Minister

JUNIOR Trade Minister Diane Seukeran upstaging her senior minister Kenneth Valley yesterday launched a stinging commentary on a wide range of issues including an “overloaded” public service, public servants who don’t work, kidnapping, crime, poverty, shortage of money for capital expenditure and the need to pay police more money so that they are not tempted by corruption.

A startled Valley, who was expected to be the main speaker at the Ministry of Trade’s strategic review exercise at Crew’s Inn, Chaguaramas, could not hide his amazement as Seukeran virtually stole the opening ceremony. She spoke for 25 minutes compared to Valley who spent ten minutes speaking on the way forward for Trinidad and Tobago. Seukeran told the gathering of public servants that it takes ten to 16 WASA workers to fix one valve, that thousands of public servants are being paid for doing nothing, that the private sector depends on the Government. She raised eyebrows when she said that the permanent secretary in the ministry (Edwina Leacock) often stayed late at night “doing over” the work of the public servants. “We have problems paying public servants,” she said. “We have a high wage bill, that is why we don’t have the money for capital projects. We need to look at how we conduct business. There is a kind of mistrust and distrust between the private sector and the public sector.”

Seukeran turned her attention to crime in TT. “Where are the crime levels coming from? What about the kidnappings? They are now kidnapping children, a five-year-old. They are not kidnapping by race or for money. “Kidnappers are in the business for kidnapping. It is a business. If they kidnap Bernard’s child today, it could be mine tomorrow. What concerns you, concerns me. When a nine-year-old could be battered and his fingers chopped, it could be anyone of yours. What kind of society is this?” Seukeran said poverty was so enormous in this society, that it was time to correct the imbalance. She said very few in society were getting richer, the masses were getting poorer, while the middle class was going downwards. How do we get out of this, she asked. She said government cannot afford to hire people any more. “Public servants can’t get a raise. If it was up to me, I would give them ten times more. More money will stop the police from being corrupt. We can’t give an increase if a ministry is overloaded. Your salary can’t be raised. Your minister (Valley) is lobbying the Cabinet.”

Seukeran used former Permanent Secretary John Andrews as an example of a public servant being lapped up by the private sector. “If you want more money, the better place is the private sector. Take John Andrews, after his expertise in energy, he was picked up and is the chairman at Atlantic LNG. If we show what we are capable of, then the minister and the PS will find it hard to hold down vacancies in the public sector.” The minister called on her ministry’s staff to get rid of the dependency syndrome. “Min-isters come and ministers go; governments fall and they rise. But the role of the ministry will remain steady for a long time to come.” She continued, “The dependency syndrome arose in this country for various reasons. It permeated all ranks of society including the private sector. The private sector became dependent on the government. They felt it should continue all the time. It was based on what the Colonial Government had done. We could not have the country flooded with imports, there must be regulation.” Seukeran said while the world was changing, businesses in Trinidad and Tobago were moving too slowly. She pointed out that people in this country were hiding their taxes and foreign exchange. The junior minister said it was not the duty of a minister to create jobs for everyone. She pointed out that every Thursday she is confronted by her constituents demanding jobs. “If there are 125 people waiting to see me, about 120 want jobs,” she said. Ken Valley was milder in his approach to the start of the two-day workshop.