PM ensuring Govt social policies work

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning’s tours of socially depressed communities last week are not an indictment of Government’s social sector policies and the Prime Minister’s objective was simply to ensure that social services are delivered to those most in need.

This was the point stressed by PNM public relations officer Jerry Narace at yesterday’s post-PNM General Council news conference at Balisier House. Last week, Manning toured the communities of Laventille, Carenage, La Horquetta, Enterprise and Maloney to address “development and job creation and the circumstances of the economically depressed in the country.” The Prime Minister said the tours had been delayed by a month and he decided to initiate these tours last week instead of attending a regional summit in Mexico because there were “too many outstanding matters requiring my attention here in Trinidad.”

The social sector has been a major priority for the PNM Government and Prime Minister Manning hinted at an even greater State emphasis on that area during talks earlier this month between himself and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. At a joint-news conference with Annan on January 2 at Whitehall, Manning said “further UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) assistance to TT especially in the social sector” features prominently in their talks along with the distinct possibility of more United Nations volunteer doctors coming to TT in the near future.

Asked if the PNM believed Manning’s direct intervention on the ground implied that Government’s social programmes had failed, Narace said: “The Prime Minister responded at his last (post-Cabinet news) conference that the activity was merely to ensure that social services were actually delivered. He was merely working with the State agencies to ensure the timely delivery of these services. He has made that point over and over again.” PNM vice-chairman John Donaldson said there were expressions of thanks from the Diego Martin West constituency and two others in the East for the Prime Minister’s visit.

Asked if the PNM itself was putting mechanisms in place to assist Government in delivering social services to the most needy, Donaldson replied: “The party is active throughout the country and in all constituencies and if a Government minister and indeed the Prime Minister were to be visiting, the party organisation in such a constituency would be very happy and would play its role.”