TTTI says tackle corruption from the home

Abdool was speaking with reporters following a TTTI-hosted town meeting at the Gulf View Community Centre, Gulf View on Tuesday night.

Asked about the nation’s downward spiral on the corruption index which witnessed Trinidad and Tobago rank 101 out of 176 countries with a score of 35, Abdool said the index pointed to the issue of corruption and which had to be dealt with by the country.

“There is a problem” Abdool said.

“We have to admit that first and the index merely points to the issue.

How do we treat with it ? We started here with this conversation with communities and we have said it begins in our home,” Abdool said, adding, “we need to begin to change how we think, how we act, how we conduct ourselves, how we conduct business, starting with the home, the communities and gradually to our organisations and our government, ensuring that public expenditure has accountability and transparency.” Asked whether the problem of corruption could be defined as a generational problem which was made worse over successive generations, he said, “I wouldn’t call it a generational problem, I think maybe there is a determination, an awareness problem. We need to first of all understand that we have a problem.

How do we address that problem? By starting with the schools and ourselves. “We started talking about identifying those areas we are weak in and by coming together with love and caring, sharing proper values,” he said, adding, “It starts in the home and starts with all of us.” He said the town hall meeting, the second for the year, was an initiative of the Transparency Institute to “promote and partner with civil society organisations, encourage transparency and accountability in the organisations themselves and within our community.” Also addressing the meeting was T&T Coalition against domestic violence representative, Natalie O’Brady, who observed that there was an “inter sectional” connection between domestic violence, truancy and criminal activity.