$29M more for expansion of CEPEP

Saying that Government would be announcing the expansion of the controversial CEPEP programme in the Budget, Prime Minister Patrick Manning also announced that Cabinet yesterday approved $29 million for the continuation of the CEPEP programme to the end of this month. The PM reiterated that the programme, which had been closed for two weeks, was one of the more successful programmes that the Government had ever put in place because it “empowered people who had been dispossessed and unemployed.” Addressing a post-Cabinet news conference, Manning declared: “It is really a success story and let us not be sidetracked by all the negative talk we hear from those who are opposed to us and who wish they were the originators of the idea.” He added that phase which would be implemented after the Budget would involve landscaping.

Manning however regretted that the murder figure for this year had exceeded last year’s record high. Commenting on statements made by Terrence Farrell suggesting that the growth rate required to achieve Vision 2020 was highly improbable, the Prime Minister said, he would be devoting the next three days “exclusively” to looking at the Budget speech. He said a “major error” had been made in the past in computating the “growth figures.” “Natural gas production and exports have not been taken sufficiently into account,” he said, adding that when the figures are corrected, it would surprise many. Manning, who said the Government had reason to believe that a UNC Minister “interfered with the CSO,” stated that his Government was thinking of having the CSO figures tabulated under the ambit of the University of Trinidad and Tobago when it gets of the ground. On the issue of Carlisle Tyres, Manning defended Government’s decision to take the issue to Industrial Court. He said Government felt it was necessary to preserve the interest of the workers.