BUDGET
2007-2008
Newsday
Port Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
08 26 07
In five and a half years the PNM Government has
spent more than $200 thousand million, but despite
this huge expenditure the citizens of Trinidad
and Tobago are worse off today than they were five
and a half years ago, according to Opposition Leader,
Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
During
her three-hour response to Prime Minister Patrick
Manning’s Budget Speech, Monday August
20 last, the Opposition Leader accused the Government
of consistently failing to deal with critical problems
facing the country.
Yesterday she blamed this mismanagement as the
reason for citizens living in poverty and destitution.
In her speech Mrs Persad-Bissessar also recalled
the plethora of broken promises of the PNM government.
She hinted at rising food prices as well as housing
costs; the very high incidence of crime, and a
failing Education system as some of the problems
that have made life a amisery for poor citizens.
Mr. Speaker,
After 5 1/2 years of PNM governance, our country
is precariously positioned on the edge of an abyss
of social and economic disaster.
This
government has received the highest revenue levels
in our nation’s history and spent
more than any other government in our nation’s
history.
They have spent more than $200 thousand million
at the rate of about $1m per day, BUT our citizens
are worse off today than they were 5 1/2 years
ago.
This government has consistently failed to deal
with the critical problems facing our country and
our citizens so that after 5 1/2 years of their
mismanagement, incompetence and dereliction of
duty, today:
* A substantial number of our citizens live in
poverty and destitution whilst government ministers
and their friends and family are smiling all the
way to the bank
* A large portion of our workforce has been humiliatingly
reduced to being the working poor
* The business sector has expressed a lack of
confidence in the local business environment and
are forced to compete on an uneven playing field
*
Food prices continue to skyrocket at double digit
inflation rates despite all government’s
bleating and schemes about lowering food prices
* The cost of housing is increasingly prohibitive
as building materials and labour costs continue
to soar
*
Citizens continue to live in fear of being raped,
robbed or murdered as crime continues unabated
despite government’s A to Z of crime plans,
from Anaconda to Zero Tolerance accompanied by
limping blimps
* The education system continues to fail our children
despite the billions squandered therein
* Our health sector is in crisis, with citizens
unable to access basic health care
* Our roads are congested and crammed resulting
in hours of traffic gridlock and loss of productive
manhours
* More than 70 percent of households do not have
an adequate supply of potable water whilst WASA
has spent over $8.5b
* Power outages are the order of the day as the
electrical resources are stretched by demand; right
here in parliament, during the last two sittings,
budget day notwithstanding, we experienced power
cuts
* Flooding continues to be a common occurrence
resulting in substantial property damage annually
because of poor drainage and watercourse maintenance
yet farmers get 49 cents compensation for crop
damage
* The economy continues to be polarized with increased
dependence on the energy sector and a widening
non oil fiscal deficit in the face of volatile
output and prices in the energy sector
*
Our agricultural sector continues to contract
as farmers are forced out of the sector because
of government’s neglect
*
High inflation caused by government’s
excessive spending has resulted in higher borrowing
costs
* The environment is under serious threat from
proposed government projects
* The administration of justice has been severely
brutalized and compromised
* The country is perceived as being increasingly
corrupt
* Instead of institutional strengthening in the
public sector, institutional weakening and destruction
is the modus operandi of this government.
These are the problems affecting the standard
of living of our citizens and the quality and substance
of our lives.
A responsible and caring government would have
addressed these priority issues in its budget.
Instead,
the 2008 budget is nothing more than a feeble,
lackluster political attempt to deflect
public pressure from the PM’s constant failure
to deal with the people’s issues.
And so,I ask, where is the love?
Where is the love PM?
Where is the love?
I
am forced to remind you that people ‘can’t
make love on hungry belly’.
The PM does not understand that a country and
its people progress only through sustained programmes
for development and prosperity.
Such
programmes should provide every citizen with
a sense of security and wellbeing, with equality
of treatment and equality of opportunity to benefit
from the exploitation and development of the country’s
resources.
The PM does not understand or does not want to
understand that a country cannot develop with a
burst of feverish, frenetic activity predicated
on broken promises in the closing weeks of the
life of a government
It
is therefore a gross insult to the intelligence
of the people of T & T for the PM to try to
deceive us in his swan song Budget with re runs
of his broken promises of airy-fairy projects and
grandiose plans in the dying weeks of his tenure
as PM.
It
is a gross insult to the intelligence of the
people of T & T to find Ministers obscenely
falling over each other in the last weeks of their
life in government repeating their broken promises
to provide water, good roads and transport, housing,
health care, education, schools, police stations,
affordable food, agricultural development and national
security.
It
is a gross insult to the intelligence of the
people of T & T for the Prime Minister to
present a series of rehashed promises, inadequate
prescriptions
and an abundance of deliberate misleading statements
and embellishments of the truth.
I call on all right thinking citizens to reject
these contemptuous and futile attempts at pre-election
pacification in the face of the reality that this
government has become irrevocably brutal, reckless
and irresponsible, and is guilty of perpetrating
the most heinous, abusive and offensive assaults
on the lives and livelihoods of our citizens.
Today, I make no recommendations to this government.
We all know they know not what to do; they know
not what they do, nor do they listen. They have
stopped up their ears so they do not hear the cries
of the people, of the fathers and mothers and children
of our nation. But I warn them with the words of
Proverbs 21.13.
“If
a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor,
he too will cry out and not be answered.”
So I make no recommendations to them today.
Instead, Mr. Speaker, in my contribution, I intend
to highlight the critical issues of the day and
the failure of the PM and his government to address
them.
Further, as the alternative government, I intend
to share with you some of the measures the UNC
Alliance will pursue to take our people and country
forward when we form the next government.
THE MACRO ECONOMY
Last year in my budget contribution, I warned
that this government had lost its way, that it
was mismanaging our finances and did not care about
the people of our nation.
I say now, having lost its way, government became
confused and in their confusion have become increasingly
reckless and irresponsible so much so that there
is no hope or salvation for them.
This recklessness and irresponsibility is manifested
in the fact that in a time of excess demand, in
an inflationary environment, the PM has expanded
budgeted expenditure by three thousand million
dollars.
Displacement of the
Business Community
Such excessive expenditure comes at a time of
shortage and structural constraints and represents
the height of irresponsibility to the citizenry.
Government’s
presence in the competitive marketplace has already
had a significant effect
on both the price and availability of resources.
The
proposed substantial injection will further entrench
the government’s position at the
expense of the other players in the country, including
the business community.
The state will be wielding the might of the government
cheque book in direct competition with the cheque
book of the ordinary citizen and the business community
for access to resources.
This exposes the definite potential for displacement
of the business community who are being forced
to compete on an uneven playing field.
Further, with excessive government expenditure
over the years, it is no surprise that people are
finding it difficult to source contractors and
workers to build or repair homes, or to obtain
basic building materials such as cement and blocks.
Worst,
the government’s massive building
program has drastically forced up the price of
building inputs over the last three years.
Inflationary budget
Mr. Speaker, the 2008 Budget is an inflationary
one.
So
too was last year’s budget.
In
my last budget contribution, I predicted that
government’s inept management of its fiscal
package would have resulted in double digit inflation.
It is now history that mere weeks after my words,
the inflation rate climbed to 10 percent. They
did not listen then, I hope they listen now.
Once more the country will have to brace itself
for double digit inflation and there is every indication
that if the proposed injections are applied as
scheduled, we may get to double digit inflation
before the end of the year.
Double digit or any inflation would mean a double
blow to the consumer. The first blow is that people
will now have to pay higher prices for goods and
services, particularly food.
The PM has increased the minimum wage by 10 percent,
but if inflation grows to ten percent, then there
would be no real increase in minimum wage.
He has increased old age pensions, and disability
grants and given a lump sum to public employees.
But how callous, how uncaring, how irresponsible,
indeed how reckless of the Prime Minister to give
to the poor, to the elderly, to the disabled in
a direct (and highly public) way and then to come
like a thief in the night, when they go to buy
their food, their medicine and their milk and rob
them of their benefit.
As
Trini would say, the PM would get a ‘cattleboil’ because
he is giving and taking back.
Three months ago in this very chamber, I presented
a detailed analysis to prove that CEPEP workers,
persons on fixed incomes such as pensioners and
those on disability grants and anyone working for
minimum wages were part of the working poor - condemned
to poverty by the government.
I indicated then that a realistic minimum wage
would be in the vicinity of $16 per hour.
I proved then that the minimum pension should
be in the vicinity of $3000 per month to keep the
elderly above poverty levels. The same $3000 should
be applied to disability grants.
To
come now and offer a paltry $1 dollar increase
in the minimum wage is an insult to our workers.
It does not even cover the hike in the cost of
living caused by the past inflation induced by
the government’s profligate spending.
To offer a pension merely half of what was calculated
to be needed is an insult to our elderly.
It is instructive to remember that while the PM
was refusing our requests for a higher minimum
wage and a more realistic pension, he increased
his own income 3 times effectively doubling his
salary since he became PM.
t is instructive to note that whilst the poor
and elderly are offered these paltry sums, he wants
$100,000 per plate for people to have conversations
with him as they sit with the mighty emperor to
eat and drink.
If
the PM would tell the truth he would also accept
that the one dollar increase, in an environment
where the price of food has literally doubled will
do nothing to improve the worker’s life and
he knows that.
He will admit to knowing that the increased pension
and disability grant is inadequate for the elderly
and disabled, that it forces them into poverty.
Where is the love??
Increased
Interest Rates
Mr. Speaker,as I said, the 2008 Budget is an inflationary
one and while the Central Bank has been able to
intervene positively to control, in some measure,
the rapid escalation in prices, it appears that
the government is determined to pursue a second
attempt to undo the work of the Central Bank.
And
so, the firefight between government’s
fiscal profligacy and the Central Bank’s
monetary policy will continue to the detriment
of the ordinary citizen.
The Bank will then have to introduce massive interventions
to absorb the additional liquidity; to sell more
bonds and/or to increase the reserve requirement
and, even so, it will still have difficulty in
controlling inflation.
I commiserate with the Central Bank Governor.
Now, in addition to having to pay higher prices
for goods and services, particularly food, people
will now find it more expensive to borrow money
as liquidity control mechanisms will push interest
rates up.
The people who will be worst affected by the increase
in interest rates would be those holding mortgages
with floating rates of interest and, new borrowers.
The business sector would also be adversely affected
as increased interest rates are translated to increased
financing charges and increased overdraft costs
leading to a further decline in competitiveness.
Because these are usually passed-on-costs, consumers
will be subjected to yet another round of price
increases.
The
combined effect of the new round of government
induced inflation contained in the proposed budget,
and the Central Bank’s response to it will
negate the material benefit to be derived from
the proposed increase in the depreciation allowance
for plant and machinery.
One step forward and one step backward. Like Alice
in Wonderland, we are running away very fast but
staying in the same place!
Absorptive Capacity
But Mr. Speaker this problem will not easily go
away.
The
Minister of Finance in his presentation on Monday
reveals his ignorance of economics and production
management when he condescendingly chastises those
who question government spending saying such criticism
is based on “spurious indicators of absorptive
capacity.”
Personally, I found it shocking that the custodian
of our financial resources was ignorant of the
fact that there is a limit to how much we can spend
efficiently as a country.
The notion of absorptive capacity is the key to
understanding why our economy is where it is, and
as a result informs policy decisions in determining
operating and production levels.
Simply put, absorptive capacity refers to the
ability to transform inputs into outputs without
waste.
Each
plant manager knows the capacity of his plant.
He knows how much output he can produce using the
materials and equipment at his disposal over a
given shift. That is his plant’s capacity.
Let us apply the concept to the economy now.
In 2000, the national budget was $13 billion.
In 2008, the figure increased by some 300 per
cent to $42 billion.
During that period however the capacity of the
government to discharge its functions did not increase
by 300 percent!
Over the past seven years the ability of the government
to implement projects has not increased by 300
per cent.
In fact, it would be safe to say that over the
past seven years the capacity of the government
to discharge its functions remained basically unchanged.
In 2000 for example, when the budgeted expenditure
was 13 billion, inflation was not an issue of concern.
In 2002 when this government came into office,
again no inflation problems.
In 2003, again no concern over inflation.
Why was this Mr. Speaker?
Simple! There was no inflationary spike despite
the injection of over $60 billion between 2000
and 2003 because there existed at the time tremendous
excess capacity in the country.
You see, when the PNM was voted out of office
in 1995, the UNC government was confronted by an
economy that was staggering to recover from a protracted
and severe depression, which had resulted in huge
amounts of idle capacity and capital availability
in both the private and public sectors.
We recognized this and began a programme of sustainable
growth aiming at full capacity in 2005. History
records that we were cheated out of office before
we got there.
In 2005, this very PNM government budgeted at
$27 billion but when they exceeded that mark and,
by supplementary appropriation, crossed to $30
billion in government expenditure, inflation became
a problem for the first time since 1982. And it
has not abated.
$30b represented the watershed level, demonstrating
that the economy had reached optimum level. We
could efficiently do no more.
If this had happened under a UNC Alliance government,
you can be certain that we would have scaled back
operations so that there would be no pressure on
prices and lending.
The PNM on the other hand was unwilling to curb
its lavish expenditure patterns. Any CXC Principles
of Business student could have predicted the result.
Too much money chasing too few goods causes price
increases.
The PNM squandermania continues and the inflationary
pressure continues, and prices will continue to
rise as long as the government fails to appreciate
that they have reached the limit of absorptive
capacity.
So that when the Prime Minister gloats that we
are where we are because of the PNM, he is not
lying.
The national crisis of high prices and the resultant
societal pandemic of poverty, and the associated
ills of crime, breakdown of the family structure,
etc. were solely caused by the PNM government.
The UNC Alliance
position
What is the position of the UNC Alliance?
It is our view that Trinidad and Tobago must never
have an inflation rate greater than that of our
trading partners....and this is estimated at 4
percent.
Given our firm understanding of absorptive capacity
and our intention that citizens get value for money
and our desire to ensure that those most vulnerable
in the country will have more real incomes, a UNC
Alliance government will determine what the country
can efficiently spend and we commit to ensure efficiency
of resource use across the board.
This will obviously impact on the level of national
savings.
National Savings
The UNC Alliance view on savings is similarly
straightforward.
Having determined what the nation can efficiently
spend, we will place the rest in the Heritage and
Stabilisation Fund and thereby build up a huge
balance so that by the year 2020, it would be immaterial
whether Trinidad and Tobago has exploitable levels
of hydro carbons.
You would of course recall that the Heritage and
Stabilisation Fund is a product of UNC foresight,
initiative, creativity and commitment to the welfare
of all our people.
This fund must ideally generate a level of returns
equal to the amount of revenue we receive from
the oil and gas sector.
Given
today’s situation, our intention is
to build this fund to such an extent that if today
we are collecting $15 billion from oil and gas,
30 years from today we should collect at least
the same amount from this particular fund.
In the interim, we are bent on Saving, Saving,
Saving, until we have reached a level where we
can be confident that we do not necessarily need
natural resources for economic sustenance.
This position is one that we hold firm.
We are of the view that it is not okay to gamble
with the future of the nation.
Quite frankly, we find it ironic that the PM who
is chastising the poor man for gambling in play
whe with one dollar of his own money, thinks nothing
of gambling away three thousand five hundred million
dollars of our money directly or via tax concessions
for oil and gas exploration in the hope that he
will get lucky.
That is hypocritical and deceitful!
The
PM claims to be anti-gambling but he is gambling
with our lives! He is the biggest gambler and “casa-man” in
T&T!
We will not gamble with the nation and our future.
We are cautious, conservative, and careful.
That is how we will show we care.
That is how we will show OUR love!
ENERGY
I turn now to the energy sector.
There is no argument that the energy sector represents
the engine of growth of the Trinidad and Tobago
economy. At present 43 per cent of the annual GDP
originates in this sector, although it employs
a mere 5 % of the labour force.
Dependence on
sector
The UNC Alliance has long expressed our concerns
about the absolute dependence of the government
on the energy sector as a whole and the concomitant
failure to develop the other sectors of the economy.
Further we have advocated restraint, and a carefully
managed monetization of our resources so as to
ensure a constant stream of income over a long
period of time.
Secrecy
Neither
has been forthcoming. What has become most ubiquitous
however, has been the high level
of secrecy regarding the contents of the MOU’s
to which the government commits.
This has often led to allegations of collusion
and concerns about the abuse of our national patrimony.
The
government has assiduously ignored its obligation
to account for the use of the nation’s resources
by refusing to provide information on the price
of gas committed to ALCOA and other downstream
users.
Ryder Scott
The revelations of excerpts of the Ryder Scott
gas audit have put the issue back on the front
burner.
It has highlighted the clandestine manner in which
the government operates.
The Minister of Energy initially promised to lay
the report in the Parliament. To date he has not
done so!
Further, while the Prime Minister insists that
we take his word that gas will be found when it
is required his assurances ring hollow in the absence
of any supporting technical evidence.
How
and when we utilize our diminishing and increasingly
valuable reserves, at least that part over which
the T&T Government has some control, is of
critical importance to our inter-generational well
being.
The exposure of the damning findings of the audit
prompted a panicked response from the Prime Minister
who immediately announced Budget Day so that he
could declare incentives for hydrocarbon exploration
even while he says that there is no problem.
The UNC-Alliance calls for the immediate publication
of the full contents of the Ryder Scott report.
A point to note Mr. Speaker is that no-one knows
what other damning disclosures may lie in that
report.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister continues in his
mad rush to gas based industrialization in flagrant
defiance of the findings of the experts, confident
only in the visions of his prophetess that there
will be more oil and gas to be found
We put no trust and faith in false prophets.
The fact of the matter is that no gas has been
found in the last two years!!
Further, the Ryder Scott Report reveals that our
proven, probable and possible reserves have all
dropped!!
The refusal of the Prime Minister to temper his
industrialization programme, to desist from committing
this country to additional projects until and unless
additional resources are found flies in the face
of common sense, especially when one considers
that already projects committed by this government
are in danger of becoming gas strapped based on
the existing level of proven gas reserves.
The arrogance of the Prime Minister in believing
that he could generate a sense of comfort by assuring
citizens that HE, Prime Minister Manning has said
that there is sufficient gas and therefore it must
be so and we must believe him despite that the
evidence is 100 percent against him, this God syndrome
is extremely frightening.
If present trends continue, the nation is likely
to be confronted very soon with a reduced revenue
stream which will prompt a reduction in government
expenditure.
As always it is those least able to bear it who
will be hardest hit - and this will start with
the make work programmes, CEPEP and URP, the most
vulnerable groups, the aged and the disabled and
the working poor.
I am no doomsday messenger but these are the facts.
When
the oil and gas runs out, the government’s
2020 vision will be dog eat dog. And this may come
sooner than you think given the 5 gas based projects
to come on stream in the short term and about 6other
projects government has been touting of late.
UNC Alliance Position
A UNC Alliance government will slow down the exploitation
of these finite resources.
We will put new projects on hold until proven
reserves can be located to support the additional
demand.
We will develop a clear programme of monetizing
based on true consultation with stakeholders.
Dubai experience
Further, A UNC Alliance government will adopt
the Dubai model.
Dubai recognized the potential for severe consequences
as a result of their exposure to an output shock
as a result of diminishing returns in their oil
economy and gas audit they proceeded to build up
their saving stock. They also started to activate
their non-oil sectors.
A UNC Alliance government will increase the rate
at which we convert our energy into foreign exchange
saved in our HSF.
We will develop other sectors of the economy,
while continuing exploration in a planned, structured
manner.
Economic philosophy
Mr.
Speaker as you may discern, our economic philosophy
is diametrically opposite to this government’s.
The country is looking for an issue to take a
stand on in the next election, and this is it!
The
UNC Alliance holds the view that the country
has gotten a second chance; that God has been
kind
to us. He has forgiven us for allowing the PNM
into office in the 1970’s.
The Good Book says God provides and He helps those
who help themselves.
Mr Speaker, God has already provided. Our present
and future depends on how we use what he has given.
The Prime Minister professes to be a pious man
yet he seems to have learnt nothing from the scriptures.
“In
the house of the wise are stores of choice food
and oil, but a foolish man devours
all he has.”
(Proverbs 21:20)
MasterCard Vs ManningCard
The Prime Minister spent the better part of three
hours boasting of how much money he was able to
sink into his failing ministries over the past
five years without providing any measure of service.
Mr. Speaker there is a popular advertisement that
goes:
“There
are some things that money cannot buy; for everything
else there is MasterCard!”
Obviously, the Prime Minister does not subscribe
to this view.
We expect his new Public Relations campaign to
go something like this in the new fiscal year:
Failing Public Health Care - $3.7 billion
Bogus National Security - $4.4 billion
The Love of the People - $42 billion
Obviously, the PM believes that there is nothing
that money cannot buy, so for everything - there
is ManningCard.
The 2008 national budget is characterized by a
continuation of the traditional PNM practice of
throwing money behind problems rather than sensibly
analyzing the issues involved, determining their
root causes and devising proper solutions.
For this reason, although this government has
spent more money than any other government in the
history of the country, it has failed to make a
dent in any of the problems facing the country.
The Minister of Finance and all his colleagues
will come to this debate and regale this chamber
with all the committees they have formed, buildings
they have built, how much money they have spent
on the problem issues, and how many persons they
have exposed to some form of training, and the
number of jobs allegedly created during the last
six years.
They
will chant the contents of the transformation
in progress book supplied last Monday which they
claim speaks to the government’s performance.
But these numbers do not tell the reality of Trinidad
and Tobago. These are Public Relations gimmickry,
glorified conmanship, statistical manipulation
and prolific spin doctoring.
Public Relations -
Propaganda Vote
Under this PNM Government every Ministry now has
a designated communications unit, including several
staff members, press officers and most often highly
paid consultants whose only job it is to convince
the nation that the government is performing.
It is not accidental that the expenditure on the
propaganda vote escalated with every passing year
as this government required increasingly more money
to mask its increasingly incompetent performance.
The propaganda vote is derived by combining the
expenditure under the heads entertainment, overseas
travel, promotions and publicity and hosting.
Not surprisingly, the propaganda vote for the
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance was consistently
larger than most of the other government ministers.
This is because it takes a lot more effort to cover
his multitude of daily bloopers.
Mr. Speaker, in 2002 their first year in office,
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Patrick
Manning spent $5.5 million on various aspects of
PR.
For the year 2007, that increased by 300 percent
to $22 million. Perhaps this has to do with all
the damage control he has had to do as a result
of his excesses at the palace.
But wait! It gets even worst.
For 2008, the relevant estimate is a whopping
$27.4 million. I wonder what catastrophe he is
bracing himself for.
The PM and MOF would have spent $111.8m during
his term in office on his propaganda vote.
His wife, the Minister of Education, who spent
about half a million dollars in 2002 spent 3138%
percent more in 2007 ($16m) and estimates to spend
another $17.6m in 2008. So from 2002 to 2008, a
total of $63m in PR for the MOE. In fact between
them, the emperor and his wife would have spent
a massive $174 million on propaganda during their
term in office!
People in this country are starving and homeless
and they can spend $174 million on publicity stunts.
That works out to an average of $ 80,000 per day
for every day for the last 5 1/2 years.
This government would have spent $63.7 million
since 2002 to prop the sagging performance of the
Minister of National Security.
Another chronic blunderbuss, the Minister of Health,
would have spent $67.3 million to bolster his image.
As before, the biggest spenders have been the
PM and the MOE and as before the Minister of Housing
is at the bottom of the list.
The statistics reveal that this government would
have spent a grand total of close to $1b ie one
hundred thousand million on propaganda since assuming
office in 2002.
From an expenditure of $17.8m on propaganda in
2002, government has increased its expenditure
by 1,353% in 2008 to S260m.
For the year 2008, the government proposes to
spend some $260 million on entertainment, overseas
travel, promotions and publicity and hosting.
By way of comparison, the UNC government spent
$14 million during its last year in office under
these heads. And in years prior to 2001, the expenditure
was less than $14m.
BROKEN BUDGET
PROMISES
Certainly one of the difficulties which even the
best spin doctors will have with this government
is that they have developed a reputation for broken
promises, and this has resulted in a loss of confidence
in the delivery of commitments made by the government.
The public remains baffled as to why there are
so many broken promises especially those emanating
from the annual budget.
One school of thought is that it is because the
persons who actually make the decisions for the
government are not those who were elected by the
people, and that the country is being run by persons
who control from the shadows.
That this is so makes a mockery of the democratic
process!
Others have suggested that many promises are made
with no intention to implement.
This is a hallmark of the PNM, and is clearly
contrary to the principles of democracy.
In
the fiscal package presented on Monday, the Minister
of Finance made quite a lot of promises,
some of which were quite familiar. In fact, throughout
the three-and-a-half-hour speech, one would be
forgiven for asking whether the Minister was not
reading from a previous year’s document.
Mr Speaker, one does not have to look far to find
the broken promises. There are thousands of citizens
whose distressed lives are today living testimony
of the deceit and failures:
1. In 2003, this very Minister of Finance assured
the Nation that Caroni (1975) Limited will remain
in the sugar processing business and cane cultivation
and production will be done by cane farmers.
Today, the sugar industry is dead and cane farmers
are out of business.
2. The allocation of land to the former Caroni
workers for the production of food for the country
has been a constant undelivered promise since 2004.
This year is no exception.
3.
The construction of the Mamoral Dam & Reservoir
Project was a priority of the 2004 Budget but was
not started.
In the following year, 2005, the promise was recycled
into the Budg
Trinidad & Tobag Newsday
Saturday, August 25 2007
Copyright
© Daily News Limited. All Rights
Reserved.
