Acting Prime Minister Errol McLeod has admitted that the People's Partnership government runs the risk of credibility issues, because present Finance Minister Winston Dookeran was in another administration in which he introduced harsh?economic measures and took the country to the IMF. Speaking at a celebratory function in his honour at the Oilfield Workers' Trade Union, San Fernando, on Saturday, McLeod said people may be now wondering if the PP was telling the truth, when it spoke about the country's economy. "When we had serious difficulty in 1987-1991 thereabouts, the Minister of Planning and the alternate Governor, is how they would have identified him on the Board of the IMF and the World Bank, was our today Minister of Finance Winston Dookeran," he said.
"And all of the structural adjustment issues and so on, some of them would have been negotiated with him, and we ketch hell. That is the truth of the matter. We ketch real hell.?"Today, Minister of Finance is Winston Dookeran, and there is the possibility, although I think we have a more understanding people now, eh, but the possibility could well be, people when they are told the truh that there is very little to go by, they might say, 'but you were there in 87-91. You took us to the IMF, World Bank. You said the Treasury was empty then. Are you telling the truth now?' "One runs the risk of our credibility being challenged." McLeod said the trade union movement needed to struggle as it has never struggled before, except this time, the struggle ought not to be against the Government.
'Man has to make jail'
"It has been suggested to the Minister of Finance, and indeed the entire?government, that if we as taxpayers have to make sacrifices to rescue policyholders and depositors who lost money in Clico then we must?ensure that the?perpetrators against the people are taken to justice...Man has to make jail," he said. "And if Petrotrin cannot sit around the table and discuss a decent wage and salary increase for its employees because massive cesspools of corruption, graft and malfeasance have brought Petrotrin to its knees, then those responsible must go to jail. "And we might find that it is against them that the struggle has to be taken."
McLeod, dressed in a purple coloured long- sleeved shirt, rather than his trademark short-sleeved blue union shirt, delivered a speech reminiscent of a trade unionist rather than a politician, and assured his comrades and successor Ancel Roget that Trinmar will not be for sale. "Under the PP Government, Trinmar will not be for sale to anybody, and that Trinmar is going to be depended upon to produce the level of indigenous crude that would assist in broadening our refinery margins, so that the whole process can be more profitable and be more viable," he said. He said the Government was relying on the OWTU, which he had the opportunity to lead for over two decades, to get it right.
"I am assured that the union is working closely with Minister of Energy Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, to ensure that we got the board appointments right and to ensure that we get the process right," McLeod said. "We have to get the process right the first time or we will always get it wrong."
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