RENU­KA SINGH

Op­po­si­tion Leader, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar SC MP, has sig­nalled her in­ten­tion to take le­gal ac­tion against Rur­al De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter, Sen­a­tor Kaz­im Ho­sein, for "hid­ing" the Bound­ary Re­port for the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions.

Speak­ing at the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress' Mon­day Night Fo­rum, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she un­der­stands that Ho­sein had that re­port since June last year.

"Why are you hid­ing that re­port min­is­ter? You have to bring that Bound­ary Re­port to the House and lay it!" she said.

"You are in breach of the law by con­tin­u­ing to hide that Bound­ary Re­port. Is it be­cause there are sub­stan­tial bound­ary changes? You are giv­ing your­self an un­fair ad­van­tage by hid­ing that Bound­ary Re­port not on­ly from the UNC, but all oth­er per­sons who are in­ter­est­ed in con­test­ing the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions," the Op­po­si­tion Leader said.

"If you don’t want to lay the Re­port on your own, we will go to Court to get a Court Or­der for you to bring that Bound­ary Re­port," Per­sad-Bisses­sar stat­ed.

She called on Ho­sein to lay the re­port by Fri­day in Par­lia­ment.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said that the Gov­ern­ment came to Par­lia­ment with sim­ple ma­jor­i­ty laws to keep ex­tend­ing the life of the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Coun­cils.

"It was when I be­came PM in 2010, I called the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions in Ju­ly 2010, af­ter the PNM re­fused to af­ter years. Then un­der this Row­ley PNM Gov­ern­ment, the same thing hap­pened," she said.

"We had to send Pre-Ac­tion Pro­to­col let­ters for the call­ing of Two Bye-Elec­tions in 2018 af­ter the Coun­cil­lors had died in Barataria and Bel­mont.

She called on Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to call the elec­tions.

"It was on­ly af­ter I sent a Pre-Ac­tion Pro­to­col Let­ter, they were forced to call the elec­tions," she said.

The UNC is con­test­ing a bye-elec­tion in Debe South on Mon­day and Per­sad-Bisses­sar claimed vic­to­ry al­ready.

"Row­ley PNM re­fused to give the peo­ple a voice in this coun­try. Sti­fling your right to vote. It is a trend that we had to threat­en to take them to Court for peo­ple to ex­er­cise their fran­chise to vote," she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Coun­cils will come to an end in De­cem­ber this year.

"Be­fore, the elec­tions are called, the EBC will pre­pare a Bound­ary Re­port, which is sent to the Min­is­ter of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment. The Min­is­ter then, un­der the law, must lay that re­port in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives for it to be de­bat­ed and ap­proved," she ex­plained.

"Why is that Re­port im­por­tant? It will set out the bound­aries for the seats in the Cor­po­ra­tions," she said.

NIB lead­er­ship change

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so weighed in on the changeover of chair­man­ship at the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board (NIB).

Guardian Me­dia re­port­ed on Sun­day that a for­mer Gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tive on the NIB board would not be tak­ing over the helm of the NIB, de­spite the NIB Act call­ing for an in­de­pen­dent chair­man.

"Un­der the law, the NIB is re­quired to pre­pare an an­nu­al re­port of the op­er­a­tions, per­for­mance and fi­nan­cials of the Bank. They have un­til Sep­tem­ber each year to give that Re­port to the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance. The Min­is­ter of Fi­nance then must lay that Re­port in the Par­lia­ment no lat­er than No­vem­ber of that year. The last two re­ports 2019 and 2020, the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance hid," she said.

"We had to go to court for these Re­ports. I un­der­stand the mat­ter is still be­fore the Court," she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said when the court grant­ed leave to sue the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance: "He ran to Par­lia­ment the same day and laid the Re­ports for 2019 and 2020.”

"Now we are in the same po­si­tion again. The Re­port for 2021 is be­ing hid­den," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She said that the Min­is­ter again is in breach of the law.

"He had to lay the 2021 Re­port in No­vem­ber last year. We are now en­ter­ing Feb­ru­ary 2022 and he has not brought that Re­port to the Par­lia­ment," she said.

"You see those Re­ports tell us how many peo­ple are un­em­ployed every year. It will tell us if the Gov­ern­ment is pay­ing the NIS con­tri­bu­tions for Gov­ern­ment work­ers.  It will tell us if they are ow­ing the NIS any penal­ties and in­ter­est for not mak­ing con­tri­bu­tions for Gov­ern­ment work­ers," she ex­plained.

"Min­is­ter stop hid­ing! I am not afraid to take you to court. It is un­ac­cept­able that we must take these Cab­i­net Min­is­ters to Court for them to do their work," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said yes­ter­day.