Cou­va South MP and Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath says the new ad­min­is­tra­tion has made strong progress in its first 90 days since the Gen­er­al Elec­tion, de­liv­er­ing on key cam­paign promis­es and of­fer­ing more com­pas­sion­ate, peo­ple-cen­tered gov­er­nance.

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) won the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion with 26 seats, up­set­ting the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), which se­cured 13. The To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) claimed the re­main­ing two seats in To­ba­go.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, as the Gov­ern­ment marks its 90th day since win­ning the na­tion­al poll, Padarath, who al­so holds the Pub­lic Util­i­ties port­fo­lio, said the Gov­ern­ment’s ear­ly per­for­mance marks a clear shift from what he de­scribed as years of stag­na­tion un­der the for­mer PNM-led ad­min­is­tra­tion.

In out­lin­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s progress, Padarath list­ed sev­er­al promis­es al­ready de­liv­ered:

1) Scrap­ping the pro­posed Trinidad and To­ba­go Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty (TTRA)

2) Halt­ing the WASA Trans­for­ma­tion Plan, pre­serv­ing thou­sands of jobs

3) Can­celling planned in­creas­es to elec­tric­i­ty tar­iffs

4) Re­mov­ing the traf­fic de­mer­it points sys­tem

5) Ap­point­ing a new Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er, work­ing close­ly with the Gov­ern­ment to tack­le crime

6) Im­prov­ing ac­cess to wa­ter, so­cial ser­vices, and health­care

“This ad­min­is­tra­tion has tak­en on a more com­pas­sion­ate and peo­ple-cen­tred ap­proach with very strong, de­ci­sive lead­er­ship from the Prime Min­is­ter. In the first 90 days, the Gov­ern­ment has worked ex­treme­ly well. Top marks for the Gov­ern­ment,” Padarath said.

He al­so stressed the dif­fi­cult con­di­tions in­her­it­ed by the new Cab­i­net.

“There has been no hon­ey­moon pe­ri­od as the pop­u­la­tion di­vorced them­selves from a pe­ri­od of stag­na­tion un­der the PNM,” he said.

“Bet­ter days are ahead for the coun­try; it re­quires tough de­ci­sions, a long-term vi­sion for the coun­try and a sus­tain­able plan for our chil­dren,” he added.

As for his own per­for­mance, Padarath said he pre­ferred to let the pub­lic be the judge.

"In my first 90 days I have ap­proached gov­er­nance with my best foot for­ward, I have al­ways promised to be a voice in­side and out­side of the Par­lia­ment, I would like to think I have kept that promise and that I have bet­tered peo­ple’s lives with a bet­ter wa­ter sup­ply than when I first went in­to pub­lic util­i­ties as a main pri­or­i­ty,” he said.

But PNM chair­man Mar­vin Gon­za­les is­sued a scathing re­but­tal, ac­cus­ing the new Gov­ern­ment of fu­elling un­em­ploy­ment by fail­ing to re­new thou­sands of con­tracts since tak­ing of­fice.

“With­in 90 days, this Gov­ern­ment has ter­mi­nat­ed the em­ploy­ment of over 20,000 work­ers, send­ing lives in a tail­spin. They have sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly and in Hitler-style wicked­ness, at­tacked cit­i­zens and fired them be­cause of their per­ceived po­lit­i­cal align­ment,” Gon­za­les al­leged.

“No gov­ern­ment in the his­to­ry of this blessed Re­pub­lic sent home 20,000 work­ers in just 90 days. They are filled with po­lit­i­cal spite and vin­dic­tive­ness,” he al­so claimed.

He al­so ques­tioned Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s vis­i­bil­i­ty and lead­er­ship style.

“The Prime Min­is­ter is a work-from-home of­fice hold­er and has ced­ed her au­thor­i­ty to a reck­less and ly­ing Min­is­ter in the of­fice of the PM,” he claimed.

“They are out of their depth and have shown their in­abil­i­ty to man­age this coun­try. The cit­i­zens now re­alise that they’ve got a 6 for a 9 and the Gov­ern­ment tries week­ly dis­trac­tions to hide their in­com­pe­tence and their ab­sent cap­tain.”

Ef­forts yes­ter­day to get a com­ment from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for her take on Gov­ern­ment’s per­for­mance since win­ning the elec­tion were un­suc­cess­ful as she did not take ques­tions while at the UNC’s head­quar­ters in Ch­agua­nas.