Imbert: PP brought CAL to penury

Imbert was questioned about a $23.5 million debt incurred by Caribbean Airlines Ltd. He responded that when the PNM government demitted office Caribbean Airlines had a billion dollars in the bank and “your (People’s Partnership) government spent that entire billion dollars and then mortgaged the planes belonging to Caribbean Airlines thereby sending the airline into penury and virtual insolvency, and now it is incumbent upon the Government to rescue Caribbean Airlines from the catastrophe that you all created in that entity with your reckless spending”. He explained that they are taking over the loan because the airline had to mortgage the ATR aircraft to pay for operating expenses.

Also yesterday, Tabaquite MP Suruj Rambachan said that there had been “a lot of commotion” recently about the use of money by the National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB) and that is was “used helter skelter”. He questioned what was being put in place by the Government to curb that spending and ensure there is no repeat of it.

Imbert responded that they have put in place a policy “to prevent the type of reckless squandermania and abuse that took place in the National Lotteries Control Board under the previous government and I am hopeful that with this new policy where donations will go those that need it rather than be given to everybody and friends and family and whoever and whoever, people who work there and so on, I am very hopeful that the new policy moving forward will be a model of probity, integrity, transparency and overall goodness”.

He also stressed that under him there will be no frivolous overseas travel by the NLCB. “And they can’t survive so we have to take over the loan,” he added. Earlier in the session Imbert said the “freeness” that previously allowed the rich to access Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses Programme (GATE) has come to an end. “Why should someone earing $200,000 a month get free tertiary education?” he asked rhetorically.

Imbert was responding to a question about the means test which has been implemented for GATE and explaining why the rich should no longer have access to free tertiary education. “The time for that kind of freeness must come to an end,” he stressed.