Dear Prime Minister,As your employer, we are once again forced to put pen to paper since obviously it is quite clear that the verbal and written warnings given to you in the past have not made any difference as it relates to your performance on the job.
It has been brought to our attention that you have admitted to several errors in the performance of your duties. And while you have admitted to errors, you have not identified the errors that you made.
This is the reason why we am writing to you today.
Despite our warnings to you about the wanton waste and spending over the last 7 years, you have not heeded our advice to curb expenditure on grandiose projects which quite frankly have not borne fruit and have not added value to our economy.
As an example, I wish to refer to the Towers on Wrightson Road which was originally constructed as the Headquarters for the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) which is now defunct.
After it became known that the FTAA was going to be a failure, you then decided that we would use the building for an International Financial Centre. We told you that IFCs were failing all over the world and it would be almost impossible to attract an IFC in Trinidad.
Well, it seems that we were right since at the time of writing, this building remains empty and unutilized. With respect to the Toruba Stadium, we also advised you that this was an unnecessary project since we already had a world class facility in the Queen's Park Cricket Club where we could hold all the World Cup Cricket matches in 2007.
The Cricket World Cup was held 3 years ago and this project has not been finished as yet. Worse than that, this project is running at least 100% over original costs and you cannot give us a date for completion.
As regards Udecott, for years we have told you about the fact that there is no accountability and you have not done anything about it. Instead, you continued to defend Udecott and its Chairman.
It is quite reprehensible that you defended the Chairman on numerous occasions despite our concerns over his performance and integrity. Clearly, your defence of Udecott and its Chairman brings into focus your judgement as well as your integrity.
As your employer, we do not wish to sully your character but we find it incomprehensible as to why you would consistently defend Udecott and its Chairman.
On the issue of crime, everyday we are bombarded with the gruesome tales of crime and violence in our country. Whether it's murder, rape, robbery or some other heinous crime, there seems to be no end in sight to all of this mayhem.
It is almost as if we have all resigned ourselves to accepting crime and violence since we do not believe that you and your team are willing or able to solve our crime problems.
We have had numerous crime fighting plans and strategies which have all failed. And, if we check the money allocated to crime fighting over the years, we will hold our heads and scream.
Quite frankly, the billions spent have made no difference and if anything it has made our situation worse since our priorities are all wrong.
To add salt into our wounds, you stated that the minister who presided over this collosal failure in National Security is one of the best ministers you had. Simply put, you and your team cannot solve our crime problems.
We know this and if we are to be brutally honest, the entire population including the ministers of government know this as well. We cannot be stuck in this defeatist attitute of not being able to solve our crime problems and just accept the status quo.
Crime is everyone's problem.
The economy is another area where you have failed the country. Despite our windfall from oil and gas, we find ourselves with budget deficits over the last 2 years. We have also been borrowing at an alarming rate and this will put pressure on the exchange rate as well as expenditure on social services in the future.
Over the last few years, we spoke to you and also wrote you about expenditure. We also advised you that you were making the same mistakes that were made in the late 70s and early 80s when you were a junior member of the team.
Having been a member of the team that made those errors in the past, we cannot understand how it could be possible for you to repeat those errors.
For this, we would have to take responsibilty since we thought that you would have learnt from your errors.
In transport and health, there are so many unresolved issues that it would take much writing to address these issues. Suffice it to say that you have also failed in these areas.
In education, your team did some good things as regards to teritary education but failed the country with pre-schools as well as primary and secondary schools. The country is producing far too many drop-outs and failures which ultimately is responsible for the cycle of poverty and crime.
Having taken into account your admittance of errors as well our warnings to you, we believe that your position as Prime Minister is untenable.
While it is noble to acknowledge one's mistakes and hopefully learn from them, we no longer have the confidence that you can do the job required of you.
Simply put, you have made too many errors and it seems that you only owned up to them after your back was against the wall.
As your employer, we have a responsibility to protect the generations to come and it is in this regard that we feel we would be taking a reckless decision in keeping you in our employ.
In the circumstances, we regret to advise that your employment with the country has been terminated.
We wish to thank you for your services and may God bless you.
Yours sincercely,
Linus Brown | Diego Martin
(on behalf of the citizens of T&T)
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