Tewarie: TT in ‘bad place’

While admitting he could not accurately predict the numbers for the third or fourth quarters of fiscal 2016, Tewarie said it was possible there could be an economic decline of between six to nine percent in the third quarter.

Accusing the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) Government of doing nothing to assure the population that it had a plan to address the economic issues facing the country, Tewarie said TT has been “in a position of deep recession since 2016. He claimed that all sectors of the economy are in decline, adding that the PNM was afraid to take any action to correct this situation. Opposition MPs thumped their desks as he said, “We might have made mistakes but we did things.” On expenditure by the Police Service in 2016, Tewarie said the police need to indicate what this has achieved in terms of assuring citizens that they will be protected from criminal elements in the country.

In response, Public Administration and Communications Minister Maxie Cuffie disclosed that the former People’s Partnership government allocated a sum of $4,879,715 to the former communications ministry to undertake a programme called National Conversations which was specifically designed to promote former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Cuffie said he had a June 24, 2014, letter which spoke to this and the use of the State-owned Caribbean New Media Group for this purpose. He told Opposition MPs that soca artiste MX-Prime had written a song about them. Quoting a few lines from that song, Cuffie claimed the Opposition had an attitude of “we still jamming” and being unconcerned about burning national issues facing the country