London: CEPEP not an issue

TOBAGO House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Orville London yesterday said  efforts by the Democratic Action Congress (DAC) and the National Alliance  for Reconstruction (NAR) to transform CEPEP into a hot topic for the January  17 THA elections will come to nought. At recent public meetings in Scarborough and Roxborough DAC leader Hochoy Charles had promised to pay CEPEP workers $110 per hour and to pay each CEPEP workers $13,000 in backpay to take care of any shortfall in pay. NAR Tobago Chairman Christo Gift has said London’s recent announcement that unemployment had fallen to 3.4 percent in mid-2004 could not be attributed to CEPEP and this was merely artificial employment.

However, London told Newsday that while the PNM’s opponents were working night and day to make CEPEP into an issue that could damage the party, those plans were doomed to fail. He explained that people on the ground and those involved in CEPEP know what the programme is all about and its benefits are there for all to see. The Chief Secretary reiterated that many of those employed in CEPEP were persons who previously thought themselves unemployable and plans were being put in place to strengthen the programme’s training component. London had previously indicated that out of the 5,400 new jobs created in Tobago over the last four years, approximately 1,000 were due to CEPEP.

London said he had documentation to prove that Charles and the DAC wanted to close down CEPEP if they were elected to office. At last Sunday’s mass PNM meeting in Scarborough, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said the 3.4 percent unemployment figure in Tobago proves that social intervention programmes like CEPEP are working well, contrary to all the criticisms levelled against them. Manning said Government’s social intervention programmes would take care of certain needs in the short-term while Government puts steps in place to create longer-term sustainable jobs.

London said he was satisfied that while the election campaign has been hectic thus far and while there were a few “unsavoury incidents,” the leaders of the various parties and others contesting the polls have kept the campaign clean. The political tempo in the sister isle is expected to increase this week, with the PNM heading to Roxborough tomorrow for a mass political meeting at 3 pm and the DAC bandwagon heading to the southern part of the island. The NAR is only fielding two candidates in the January 17 polls but Gift, one of those candidates, says the party is “on the ground” and the electorate is unhappy with the campaigns of the PNM and DAC.