PM, Kamla clash over flood $$

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning and Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar traded political punches in Parliament yesterday over alleged State terrorism against the UNC and Government’s efforts to tackle flooding in the Penal/Debe region. During debate on the Copyright Amendment Bill 2004, Persad-Bissessar charged there was a conspiracy between the PNM and the police to prevent UNC MPs and activists from speaking about alleged corruption taking place in Trinidad and Tobago. She quoted from an alleged December 17 letter sent to Police Commissioner Trevor Paul, the Prime Minister, Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday and the Director of Public Prosecutions to prove her point.

According to Persad-Bissessar, the letter’s author was criticised for speaking about corruption allegations concerning NH International chairman Emile Elias and Housing Minister Dr Keith Rowley, and was informed by a senior police officer about a threat against his life and a plan to arrest him. She also alleged that investigators from a company hired by the Integrity Commission to investigate matters pertaining to the Scarborough Regional Hospital and the Landate affair, have been speaking to UNC MPs and this company had also been hired by Government to undertake certain investigations at the National Lotteries Control Board. “This is an act of State terrorism. We are being intimidated and terrorised,” Persad-Bissessar claimed. 

Her utterances drew sharp barbs from Rowley and Planning Minister Camille Robinson-Regis, and House Speaker Barry Sinanan had to appeal for order several times. Persad-Bissessar accused the Prime Minister of reducing flood monies allocated to the Penal/Debe Regional Corporation (PDRC) from $15 million to $1.2 million. Manning replied that the PDRC was “authorised to proceed immediately to incur expenditure and the Minister of Finance gave the assurance that whatever monies expended would have been reimbursed, before we saw any documentation at all. “When the documentation was submitted (by the PDRC) for an expenditure of approximately $15 million, they put into it every possible project they could think off.

Therefore, when a meeting was convened by the head of the Civil Service to identify priorities, they were asked to submit what was immediately required as an action plan and that came up to $1.1 million. “They have now been asked to go to a second tier of projects to consider for further funding so there will be no hiatus in work that is taking place to bring Penal/Debe back to a state of normalcy. “We have already acted in terms of phase one and we are awaiting a submission from the PDRC in respect of phase two and then we will go to phase three,” the Prime Minister declared.  Cabinet approved the $1.1 million allocation to the PDRC on Thursday. After that exchange, Manning and Persad-Bissessar agreed to a truce when their arguments shifted to their respective experiences as UWI students in Jamaica and reggae music.