As Trinidad and To­ba­go pre­pares for the cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing of the new par­lia­men­tary term on May 23, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Trans­paren­cy In­sti­tute (TT­TI) is urg­ing the Gov­ern­ment to pri­or­i­tize the op­er­a­tional­i­sa­tion of the Whistle­blow­er Pro­tec­tion Act and the ad­vance­ment of com­pre­hen­sive cam­paign fi­nance re­form.

In a state­ment is­sued ahead of the new ses­sion of Par­lia­ment, TT­TI em­pha­sized that ef­fec­tive whistle­blow­er leg­is­la­tion is a cor­ner­stone of good gov­er­nance. While the Whistle­blow­er Pro­tec­tion Act has been passed and as­sent­ed to, it re­mains un­pro­claimed. The In­sti­tute called for its full im­ple­men­ta­tion, stat­ing that it would em­pow­er in­di­vid­u­als in both the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors to re­port mis­con­duct with­out fear of re­tal­i­a­tion—strength­en­ing in­sti­tu­tion­al in­tegri­ty and safe­guard­ing pub­lic funds.

TT­TI al­so re­it­er­at­ed its long­stand­ing call for re­form in the area of po­lit­i­cal fi­nanc­ing. Point­ing to con­cerns raised dur­ing the last Gen­er­al Elec­tion by var­i­ous stake­hold­ers and the CARI­COM Ob­serv­er Group, the In­sti­tute stressed that cam­paign fi­nance re­form is es­sen­tial to en­sure that elect­ed of­fi­cials re­main ac­count­able to the pub­lic rather than to fi­nan­cial back­ers. Such re­forms, it ar­gued, would help curb cor­rup­tion, re­store pub­lic con­fi­dence, and cre­ate space for broad­er par­tic­i­pa­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly from women, youth, and un­der­rep­re­sent­ed groups.

The call to ac­tion comes fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar that the new par­lia­men­tary term will be­gin with a cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing on May 23. TT­TI ex­pressed hope that the sit­ting would mark the start of a trans­for­ma­tive chap­ter in the na­tion’s his­to­ry—de­fined by pro­gres­sive leg­is­la­tion, strong gov­er­nance, and a re­newed com­mit­ment to trans­paren­cy.

The In­sti­tute wel­comed ear­ly state­ments by the Prime Min­is­ter, the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, and the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance sig­nal­ing a ze­ro-tol­er­ance ap­proach to cor­rup­tion and a pledge to lead a trans­par­ent and in­clu­sive ad­min­is­tra­tion. How­ev­er, TT­TI cau­tioned that mean­ing­ful change de­pends on de­ci­sive and sus­tained ac­tion—not just rhetoric.

In ad­di­tion to its leg­isla­tive pri­or­i­ties, TT­TI urged the Gov­ern­ment to re-en­gage with the Open Gov­ern­ment Part­ner­ship (OGP), cit­ing its po­ten­tial to strength­en dig­i­tal gov­er­nance, im­prove ser­vice de­liv­ery, and in­crease pub­lic trust through en­hanced trans­paren­cy and cit­i­zen par­tic­i­pa­tion.

As the coun­try awaits the for­mal set­ting of the Gov­ern­ment’s leg­isla­tive agen­da, TT­TI called on all mem­bers of par­lia­ment and sen­a­tors to seize the op­por­tu­ni­ty to en­act re­forms that will mod­ern­ize gov­er­nance, re­in­force the rule of law, and el­e­vate Trinidad and To­ba­go’s glob­al stand­ing.