Laquis: Ganga fears imminent UNC defeat

FORMER PNM MP Dr Joe Laquis said corruption accusations levelled against him by Opposition Chief Whip Ganga Singh reflect Singh’s fears of an imminent UNC defeat in the upcoming Local Government Elections. On Tuesday, Singh alleged in Parliament that Laquis, his son Mark and WASA vice-chairman Rawlingson Agard were behind a reported $29 million overpayment by WASA to Waterfarms (Trinidad) Limited. Addressing a news conference at Crowne Plaza yesterday, Laquis declared: “To have an individual misuse the privileges of Parliament to accuse me of acts of which I have absolutely no knowledge and to implicate the Laquis name in such a way, cannot and will not be tolerated.I have nothing to do with WASA. To claim, state and implicate that I am part of a $29 million kickback in WASA has got to be one of the most ridiculous, insincere and false statements I have ever heard.”

Dr Laquis attributed Singh’s accusations to a growing fear of significant losses in Opposition strongholds and the UNC’s powerlessness to stop it. “I know not if the cause of the incursions I have made in the last few months into the so-called no longer UNC areas that I am being attacked and trying to be brought down,” he said. Recalling his role as a political strategist to win the Ortoire/Mayaro seat in the 2002 general elections, Laquis predicted “there shall be similar political results in the central areas in the forthcoming general elections” He said he was a PNM activist and stalwart but never a party financier. Laquis said while several people have approached him as a senior PNM member “asking me for opportunities to get jobs”,  he always insists they use the established channels to gain employment.

He said Agard was a fellow PNMite and someone he had no business connections with.  Describing Singh as someone with “a chronic paranoid personality”, Laquis declared that all irregularities at State Enterprises from 1995 to 2001 will be thoroughly investigated and “I will not be playing cards with Dhanraj and others in some jail. “You want to attack me be a man, don’t be a little coward and attack me in the House. I intend to request of my party that I be given one day as an acting senator to respond,” he added. However Laquis said that unlike Singh, “my response in the Upper House will not be to implicate falsehoods or to say falsehoods against anyone”.

Recalling Couva South MP Kelvin Ramnath’s threat against Government Ministers in Central Trinidad, Laquis declared that he could prevent Singh from speaking on any political platform in the East/West corridor. Asked if this was a threat against Singh, Laquis replied it was “a fact” and attributed it to his 30 years in active politics. Dr Laquis said complaining to Oppostion Leader Basdeo Panday was a waste of time because Panday had lost control of the UNC and lamented that party’s continued degradation of Parliament. The former MP hinted that he may consider offering himself as a candidate for the 2007 general elections if the circumstances warrant it. Dr Laquis also said his son Mark, an attorney-at-law, was examining the possibility of legal action against Singh.