Former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley says T&T and the media must ensure that members of the new United National Congress (UNC) government do not undermine, dismiss or delay the recovery of the approximately US$100 million in the US courts in the Piarco Airport matter.
“People involved in those matters were up front in funding this government and arranging electoral victory for this government with the expectation and the hope that the government will act in their interest and not the public interest,” Rowley alleged at a media briefing at PNM’s Balisier House headquarters on Wednesday.
He also expressed concern that people with questions to answer about national security issues are “cosying” up to the new government and may not be held accountable.
On corruption and criminality, Rowley said citizens should be concerned “that people in the government today, many of them have questions to answer about white collar crime and criminality of one kind or another.”
He added: “It is my view they will use the government to evade their responsibility. This government, in its prior incarnation, has shown a disposition to use the government and the Parliament to protect criminal conduct on the part of its friends.
“That situation has been recreated. There are a number of issues in the court now where the government is required to diligently persecute people for wrongdoing. It is my view that this Government has no commitment to that.
“One particular one I want to raise is the matter that the PNM government prosecuted in Florida, against people who were held accountable for matters concerning the Piarco Airport.
“This government, in its prior incarnation, refused to prosecute the matter. It lay dormant for the five years that the UNC was there under the current prime minister. We prosecuted it to completion and won the case.”
Rowley also cited the Clico bailout issue.
“You may recall when this government was in office and went out of office, they told this country that they had settled the Clico matter, that the Clico bailout was now history, everything had been done and T&T had nothing to worry about.
“When we came into government, we discovered it was not so at all. We faced three things. We discovered for the first time how large the bailout was (upwards of $29 billion), discovered that upwards of $15 billion was still outstanding and worse, the principal original interest in the Clico matter was refusing to sign the IOU stating that they owed taxpayers that money,” he said.
Noting that Point Fortin and other areas voted UNC, Rowley also recounted issues with the Point Fortin Highway project and the People’s National Movement‘s work to return money to T&T from that project.
“People voted against the government that brought back the money that was stolen, by voting for the people who had stolen,” he alleged.
“Isn’t that a helluva thing? It tells me that the population itself does not hold people accountable for white-collar criminal conduct and that’s why so many people with questions to answer could be around this government.
“Some of them aiming to get into the Cabinet while the questions of misconduct in the white-collar crime realm haven’t been dealt with to completion,” Rowley said.
“To me, that’s a red flag in T&T, where the government has no commitment to treating with white-collar criminal conduct and encourage people, but this isn’t only to do with money. This corruption and criminality, it also has to do with national security.”
Rowley said he hoped the Sandals investors won’t be chased away again.
Noting that the new government has a constitutional majority, Rowley said he expected that since they had “voted down” the PNM government’s autonomy proposals, they would “vote up better terms and conditions for Tobago.”
He added: “The PNM would stand by to support that notwithstanding what is said in Tobago.”