JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, March 16, 2025

Cuffie warns Tobagonians not to trust Duke

by

Otto Carrington
1216 days ago
20211115
Head of the Concerned Public Officers, Curtis Cuffie.

Head of the Concerned Public Officers, Curtis Cuffie.

NICOLE DRAYTON

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.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored