Acting Prime Minister Errol McLeod has publicly apologised to Finance Minister Winston Dookeran for statements he made at a function on Saturday.
While delivering the feature address at the opening ceremony of AmCham T&T's 14th annual HSSE conference and exhibition at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, McLeod said: "I must offer apologies to my ministerial colleague Winston Dookeran." He said he was "certain" that what the media heard was not what he meant. "I deprecate vehemently any attempt to paint me as being irresponsible and malicious," he said. McLeod also addressed the issue, via a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister, dismissing news reports that he questioned Dookeran's credibility. He said he wanted to clarify misleading reports which were aired on a radio station and a newspaper yesterday regarding his statements at a celebratory function in his honour by the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union.
The statement said: "The Prime Minister (acting) did make reference to Minister Dookeran in his statement with regard to his tenure as Minister of Planning when this country last made representation for assistance to the International Monetary Fund." It added that an insinuation was made in the headline of the news reports that McLeod was questioning Dookeran's credibility. It stated: "The statements made by the Prime Minister (acting) did not reflect such a view.
"The Prime Minister (acting) wishes to make clear that as a matter of public record, he does not have any feelings of concern about the Honourable Minister of Finance's credibility and that he wishes to dispel any such notion which may have crept in the public consciousness as a result of this morning's (yesterday's) reports." It said McLeod spoke with Dookeran who indicated he was not concerned about the comments.
What Mc Leod said:
"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 Word Bank, was our today Minister of Finance Winston Dookeran. "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 truth 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 us the truth now?"