Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress Sen­a­tor Wade Mark, who projects the 2023 Bud­get may be pre­sent­ed in mid-Sep­tem­ber, has de­mand­ed that Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert de­liv­er his Sep­tem­ber 2 pre-Bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion on T&T’s fi­nances in Par­lia­ment so the Op­po­si­tion can de­bate it.

At Thurs­day’s UNC me­dia brief­ing at the Of­fice of the Op­po­si­tion Leader in Port-of-Spain, Mark said Im­bert must speak in Par­lia­ment on the is­sue not at the Hy­att or else­where.

“He’s not re­port­ing to Par­lia­ment but spend­ing tax­pay­ers’ mon­ey to go to the Hy­att to con­trol the nar­ra­tive,” Mark claimed.

“Bring your re­port to both Hous­es of Par­lia­ment and let the Op­po­si­tion re­spond to your re­port. Let’s have a full de­bate rather than come to the Hy­att and tell T&T things are so bad, you’re go­ing to in­crease the re­tire­ment age to 65. Is that what you’re go­ing to an­nounce?! Or your in­abil­i­ty to pay back pay? Peo­ple are work­ing on 2013 salaries and Gov­ern­ment has to pay.”

Mark said the Prime Min­is­ter all but said on Mon­day that the “deal” with the US-based Quan­ten LLC for the Guaracara re­fin­ery was dead.

He claimed it was the UNC’s re­cent ex­po­sure of Quan­ten that led tothe halt­ing of the bid and called for Gov­ern­ment to get the re­fin­ery go­ing.

Call­ing for a crim­i­nal foren­sic probe in­to re-ex­port­ing of $1 bil­lion litres of re­fined fu­el, which, he said, was hap­pen­ing while Gov­ern­ment wants to “cap” its fu­el sub­sidy con­tri­bu­tion, Mark asked if the fu­el was be­ing sent to Venezuela and if US sanc­tions were “be­ing bro­ken.”

He claimed Gov­ern­ment might want to sell all FCB, Re­pub­lic Bank and TSTT shares, the Port Au­thor­i­ty and has “plans” for WASA and TTEC.

Mark claimed T&T is at a “tip­ping point” and it was “emerg­ing” like what hap­pened in Sri Lan­ka, “where the Gov­ern­ment“ stole the Trea­sury and mis­man­aged re­sources.

Say­ing the Gov­ern­ment has been “a mon­u­men­tal fail­ure,” Mark said the “signs are emerg­ing, dark clouds are gath­er­ing...call fresh elec­tions!”

— Gail Alexan­der