Geisha Kow­lessar

Anil Roberts should have been fired rather than hav­ing to re­sign.This was the col­lec­tive cry of the PNM and trade union lead­ers fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar that she had ac­cept­ed Roberts' res­ig­na­tion.In an im­me­di­ate re­sponse, the PNM's pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer Faris Al-Rawi said it was scan­dalous that the Prime Min­is­ter, as head of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, had to ac­cept Roberts' res­ig­na­tion as op­posed to hav­ing him dis­missed.

He said that was es­pe­cial­ly so, giv­en the fact that the al­le­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion and fi­nan­cial im­pro­pri­ety in the Life Sport pro­gramme had been an is­sue which oc­cu­pied na­tion­al in­ter­est since last Oc­to­ber."This is­sue must have been the sub­ject of se­ri­ous dis­cus­sion at the high­est lev­el of the Cab­i­net and the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil."It is scep­ti­cal that it took pub­lic out­rage for the Prime Min­is­ter, who heads the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, to re­lieve the pop­u­la­tion from the scan­dal that is the Life Sport pro­gramme by ac­cept­ing the sup­posed res­ig­na­tion of Mr Roberts," Al-Rawi added.

He said there must be fur­ther "anx­ious scruti­ny" in­to the pro­gramme and the se­ri­ous is­sue re­mained the State's per­cep­tion to deal with any back­lash of fi­nan­cial sup­port from the State to al­leged crim­i­nal gangs."The Prime Min­is­ter needs to speak on our na­tion's na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty pre­pared­ness on all fronts and would do well to ex­plain to the na­tion why she did not seem to ac­cept the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty's pub­lic crit­i­cism of the Life Sport pro­gramme in the face of her seem­ing­ly open sup­port for Mr Roberts."There are se­ri­ous al­le­ga­tions aris­ing in re­spect of the URP and Hope of Life which the PNM shall be pros­e­cut­ing in the pub­lic's in­ter­est," Al-Rawi said.Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Gary Grif­fith said he had no com­ment to make.

We feel vin­di­cat­ed say unions

Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers Union (BIG­WU) pres­i­dent Vin­cent Cabr­era and Joseph Re­my, pres­i­dent of the Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers' Union al­so ques­tioned whether Roberts had re­signed or was in fact forced to do so.Cabr­era, Re­my and lead­ers of oth­er trade unions protest­ed out­side the Min­istry of Sport, Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain, around 10 am yes­ter­day de­mand­ing that Roberts "must go."

Com­ment­ing on the res­ig­na­tion Cabr­era said many mem­bers of the pub­lic joined yes­ter­day's protest and al­so added their voic­es to the call for Roberts to be boot­ed."So we would have gained mo­men­tum by our ac­tion and we be­lieve Mr Roberts was forced to re­sign," Cabr­era added.Echo­ing his sen­ti­ments Re­my said he felt vin­di­cat­ed adding that Per­sad-Bisses­sar was sup­posed to fire Roberts."We hope this would be the be­gin­ning of an ex­o­dus of min­is­ters who have tam­pered with the pub­lic's purse," Re­my added.