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.

Monday, March 17, 2025

Mark: PSC crisis will affect T&T's investment climate

by

1245 days ago
20211018
Opposition Senator Wade Mark

Opposition Senator Wade Mark

OFFICE OF THE PARLIAMENT

Gail Alexan­der

The cri­sis con­cern­ing the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion and oth­er high lev­els will af­fect T&T’s in­vest­ment cli­mate since for­eign in­vestors won’t be at­tract­ed if they lack con­fi­dence in T&T’s in­sti­tu­tions or think there’s a po­lit­i­cal con­spir­a­cy to ap­point a “pup­pet” Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.

That was the view of UNC Sen­a­tor Wade Mark, de­liv­er­ing his Bud­get 2022 state­ment in the Sen­ate yes­ter­day.

Mark dis­missed the Bud­get as a “weaponised” mech­a­nism meant to in­flict max­i­mum in­jury on the peo­ple “while (PNM) si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly en­rich­es them­selves, their fam­i­ly, and their fi­nanciers.”

He added, “In this bud­get de­bate, our coun­try is en­dur­ing a con­sti­tu­tion­al calami­ty that will have un­told rip­pling ef­fects through­out every sec­tor of our so­ci­ety, in­clud­ing our econ­o­my, there is no greater sin­gle im­ped­i­ment to eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty than the ero­sion of the rule of law. And there’s been no greater threat to the rule of law than this gov­ern­ment.”

“This coun­try’s chief law­mak­er, whose in­com­pe­tence is the sole cause for this calami­ty which has be­fall­en T&T could ap­pre­ci­ate the grav­i­ty and se­ri­ous­ness of his hubris.“

"There is no greater risk to eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty than the ero­sion of the rule of law."

Mark said T&T’s econ­o­my de­pends heav­i­ly on for­eign di­rect in­vest­ment. “Which for­eign in­vestor wants to in­ject cap­i­tal in­to a coun­try that can’t even se­lect a com­mis­sion­er of po­lice? In oth­er places com­pa­nies are tak­ing per­sons to the edge of the Earth’s at­mos­phere, mean­while, in T&T, a mer­it list from the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion can’t even trav­el from the Pres­i­dent’s house to the Par­lia­ment."

“Which for­eign in­vestor wants to in­vest mon­ey in a coun­try where the chief law­mak­er can­not draft the sim­plest of doc­u­ments, much less be­ing able to draft the com­plex fi­nan­cial and reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work that for­eign in­vestors re­quire to en­sure pro­tec­tion on in­vest­ment?“

Mark added, “Which for­eign in­vestor wants to in­vest in a coun­try where that same in­com­pe­tent law drafter us­es Par­lia­ment to make un­true ac­cu­sa­tions against a sit­ting op­po­si­tion leader and then is forced to prompt­ly apol­o­gize?"

"We have no Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, no Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion, an At­tor­ney Gen­er­al’s of­fice is with­out com­pe­tent lead­er­ship, we have an un­known pub­lic of­fi­cial that is a pup­pet mas­ter ma­nip­u­lat­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al process­es- and we have a Pres­i­dent who I will not men­tion be­cause the stand­ing or­ders do not per­mit me to im­peach that of­fi­cer.’’

Mark added, “Our eco­nom­ic prob­lems don’t ex­ist in iso­la­tion. If in­vestors and cit­i­zens have no con­fi­dence in our in­sti­tu­tions, then they will have no con­fi­dence in our econ­o­my.“

“If in­vestors think there’s a po­lit­i­cal con­spir­a­cy to ap­point a pup­pet CoP com­mis­sion­er then they will not in­vest for fear of po­lit­i­cal pros­e­cu­tion. If in­vestors aren’t con­vinced this Gov­ern­ment has the po­lit­i­cal strength and will to re­move the ob­vi­ous source of in­com­pe­tence from their ranks, they will not in­vest."

Mark said Gov­ern­ment should in­tro­duce a tax on the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al,

"For every time he los­es a case. We wouldn’t have to wor­ry about prop­er­ty tax af­ter that. With that mon­ey we could buy every­body in the coun­try a Porsche.”

Mark called for a foren­sic au­dit of the FCB/ Bari­ta In­vest­ments is­sue and for the FCB CEO and Board to re­sign over this “Ponzi scheme”.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored