Tancoo: Auditor General Vindicated, PNM Must Still Answer

Opposition MP and shadow Minister of Finance Dave Tancoo says while the latest news that Cabinet has scrapped the probe into the Auditor General, it does not put an end to the questions that Minister Colm Imbert and the PNM must answer before the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.

A press release issued late on Friday February 28, 2025 by the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs stated that the submission of the final report by the self-appointed investigative team, “helpfully discloses what went wrong and satisfactorily explained the understatement”.

However, MP Tancoo responded to this new development saying, “This changes virtually nothing. While it is undoubtedly a vindication of the Auditor General Jaiwantee Ramdass, the matter continues where Ms. Ramdass seeks to officially clear her name against the injustice and malice brought upon her character and office by the Rowley-led PNM. All the report does is echo the flaccid excuse that Minister Colm Imbert presented weeks ago, blaming it on an accounting error to the fault of some unnamed public servant in the Ministry of Finance.”

The Oropouche West MP also stated that it does not absolve Minister Imbert and the Attorney General of their reckless behavior which have put the taxpayers into untold expense. “It remains a shameful abuse of high office by these Cabinet Ministers, especially the Minister of Finance, who made no effort whatsoever to have the matter resolved by mediating with the Central Bank before launching an all-out attack on the constitutionally protected, independent Office of the Auditor General.”

Tancoo also remains adamant in his pursuit for answers about how much this now abandoned witch-hunt has cost the taxpayers, as well as the names of the legal team on the side of the Government who were paid to drag the matter all the way to the Privy Council, only for the Government to now abruptly drop the matter.

He put the question squarely to them: “Did the Government drop the case because Colm Imbert was facing mounting public pressure about why he is not being investigated for his part in this fiasco? Imbert and A.G. Armour cannot simply walk away from this, after deploying what was almost a ‘scorched earth policy’ to incriminate the Auditor General without any due diligence or care for financial prudence or a considerate solution.”

MP Tancoo is calling on the Government to stop the charade and the petty political games at the expense of hard-working, diligent public servants and the taxpaying citizens. “If Minister Imbert and the PNM believe they have wrapped up the proverbial ball of twine on this matter, I want to remind them that time is longer than twine and it is not yet over. The citizens still want answers.”