MP Lee – I went to Church, don’t sweep government incompetence under the carpet

UNC Chairman David Lee

It is quite unfortunate that the Prime Minister has sought to trivialize the Opposition’s claims of corruption at NLCB by responding with calls for me “to go to church” as opposed to adequately addressing these serious claims which are of national importance to our taxpayers.

However, apart from informing the Prime Minister that I attended mass at 7am yesterday(Sunday) morning before joining Opposition Colleagues to demand accountability and transparency from Government, I am calling on the Prime Minister as the head of the Cabinet to desist from attempting to sweep issues of mismanagement and incompetence under the carpet. The matters surrounding NLCB are critical as it involves millions of taxpayers’ dollars, therefore our citizens deserve answers.

As a nation we are seeing yet another instance where the Prime Minister has looked to either distract, shrug off or ignore allegations of taxpayers’ moneybeing wasted or misappropriated. This clearly demonstrates a government that has not only lost it’s way but may even have been responsible for these acts, therefore these responses are a way to hide their incompetent actions. This may actually be the case with NLCB where someone in the Ministry of Finance or AG’s office “dropped the ball” as it pertains to the proclamation of the winnings tax.

It is quite abhorrent and distasteful that in a democracy which is supposed to uphold the principles of free speech, each time the Opposition raises issues that are pertinent to our nation’s economic and social framework or public infrastructure ,the government tries to be condescending towards us. They adopt the approach of ridicule and insult in an effort to force the Opposition into submission.

However we will not be deterred as we have a duty to the people of Trinidad and Tobago, and as a result we are continuing our calls for the Government to come clean on NLCB. The Minister of Finance needs to tell the population why was this tax illegally implemented without proper procedure and further investigate the improper procurement procedures at the NLCB