?One of the real failings of this Government is its lack of transparency on crucial matters which attract public attention.
Moreover, when it eventually releases information, it is late, insufficient and there is a sense of the Government feeling peeved when it is forced by the circumstances to close the information gap. The present example of what we speak is the construction of the "mystery church" at the Heights of Guanapo on state lands. But the information gap was similarly wide in the instance of the hosting of the two summits last year and the management of the Udecott portfolio. Also, the Prime Minister and the Government had to be forced into a corner before it consulted on the construction of the smelter plant in Chatham and a string of other matters engaged in without adequate information about the projects and policy decisions.�
Because of the lack of transparency and always the seeming need to force the information out of the Government, the conclusion could easily be arrived at that the Government does not feel it has to communicate with the population on such matters, that it can take decisions in its infinite wisdom without reference to the population "and who don't like it, tough!" Prime Minister Patrick Manning's belated communication that the church is not being built with state funds and it does not belong to him does not go anywhere near to answering the many serious questions outstanding about the church, more so that the Prime Minister has said that the land on which the building is being constructed is state-owned. One has to presume that the Government does not simply hand out state lands to anyone passing by, that the church has to be a bona fide institution, that the principals are people of upstanding quality, that the Government must have had some information on where the funds would come from to construct the building/s, even what are the religious tenets of the institution so that the country does not wake up one morning and find there is a Jim Jones nestling in the woods of Guanapo.
Yet the Prime Minister hands out the barest of information about a church that is in fact being constructed with state resources, the land being the fundamental building block upon which the church will stand and any valuation of the property must take into consideration the land upon which it is built. Prime Minister Manning must therefore be conscious that the public does have a right to know in detail about this church, the principals involved, what are the bases upon which the grant of land was made etc. Significantly too, given all the reports in the media about the owners allegedly not going through the processes required by the Town and Country authorities and the Tunapuna/ Piarco Regional Corporation, the Government could very well be charged with condoning the flouting of regulations by an institution using public resources.�Also, various elements of the media have reported the allegation made by a family who claimed to have lived on the land for 35 years but was allegedly pushed off the land at gunpoint.
Additionally, that the husband-and-wife team took it upon themselves to receive payment for state lands which did not belong to them in the first place. Surely these matters need serious investigation. The Prime Minister himself introduced into the discussion the subject of state/church relationship and has promised a discourse on the matter. In the clear light of the unsatisfactory nature of the explanation given, the Prime Minister would do well to include in his address information on all the above and more when he speaks on the issue.