OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

There are more calls for Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke to ac­count for the fi­nances at the trade union.

This time, the call comes from head of the Con­cerned Pub­lic Of­fi­cers Cur­tis Cuffie, who wants Duke to ad­here to the PSA’s con­sti­tu­tion. He has al­so warned To­bag­o­ni­ans not to trust Duke.

Al­le­ga­tions sur­round­ing Duke, who is al­so the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots leader, come as his par­ty is set to con­test the De­cem­ber 6 To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tions.

Yes­ter­day, Cuffie said, “There are ten years of fi­nan­cials of the union un­ac­count­ed for and over these years, it is over $130 mil­lion are un­ac­count­ed for and this mon­ey had passed through the union.”

He feared that if a prop­er foren­sic au­dit is done, the PSA may be­come in­sol­vent.

Cuffie and oth­er of­fi­cers bat­tling Duke vis­it­ed the Fraud Squad in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day with more of their con­cerns. The mem­bers have al­so been bat­tling Duke in court for over eight years.

“We al­so have the sit­u­a­tion with the lands and homes at Long Cir­cu­lar Road. It start­ed be­fore pres­i­dent Duke time but he has been the Pres­i­dent for over 12 years. So his ex­ec­u­tive is tasked with the com­ple­tion of that project and to date, the home­own­ers - who in some in­stances paid 90 per cent of the val­ue of the prop­er­ty - that mat­ter is be­fore the court and I am sure this will rule against the PSA as all judg­ment does,” he said.

Re­cent­ly, mem­bers hand­ed over a High Court-or­dered au­dit to the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice, as al­le­ga­tions of mis­con­duct resur­faced against Duke.

Be­cause of his sus­pi­cions about the han­dling of the PSA fi­nances, Cuffie has is­sued a warn­ing to To­bag­o­ni­ans.

“I can­not fath­om any­body putting or vot­ing Wat­son Duke in­to of­fice at a na­tion­al lev­el. The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly is one of the high­est bod­ies in Trinidad and To­ba­go and Wat­son Duke is stat­ing that he wants to be the Sec­re­tary of Fi­nance. This is a man who can­not ac­count for over $130 mil­lion of the PSA funds and To­ba­go wants this man to over­see $3 to 4 bil­lion every year? I trust that the To­bag­o­ni­ans will hear what I am say­ing. This man is dan­ger­ous and he has de­stroyed every sin­gle or­gan it had in the PSA,” Cuffie al­leged.