There are so many demands unfolding upon the new government that we need to wonder how or where all – or even any one of these — will end.
And the simple truth is that the government was not aware of all of these liabilities and problems, not when they took up Patrick Manning’s election challenge, not when they were campaigning, and certainly not when they came into office.
None of the major issues which the government now faces was listed among their promises for the first 120 days in office. They were not listed because they were not known. And the truth is, while the liabilities and problems are now being made public, the actual extent is still uncertain.
This is a very frightening situation, for until the government can establish a full accounting of the extent of the toxic liabilities bequeathed upon us –that is us, not just the new government---by the PNM, no meaningful strategy can be developed for prioritizing, far less resolving, the issues we face.
There is no end in sight to the sums of money left owing to local contractors, consultants, suppliers and workers by the PNM. Every week we learn of millions of dollars more owed to local businesses.
Note that there are no foreign contractors or suppliers claiming monies for owed for the services and goods they supplied to the PNM government. Like they all got paid, but our people did not.
First we heard from the Contractors Association, then from the pharmaceutical suppliers, then from the Energy Chamber, and most recently from Agostini Limited. We hear from workers in OJT and MUST who have not been paid. We see Trade Unions marching in support of demands never addressed by the PNM.
Where will it end? How much does the government really owe to local business and labour?
And we still have no idea of the extent of the CLICO disaster, another legacy of the departing PNM. Oh, I accept that the problems of CLICO obviously spanned from the 1991 PNM administration through UNC and into the Manning-led 2020 Mirage which they tried to sell as “vision”.
Where is the end of the massive sums of money which Duprey and Monteil took from insurance policy-holders and those silly (and I make no apology for this!) EFPA “Investors”, in whatever form they climbed aboard.
Imagine, folks—especially those of you now cursing Kamla and Winston—all your little Life Insurance premiums adding up to Hundreds of Millions of dollars being used to buy Jamaica Rum and land in Miami.
And of all of those hundreds of millions taken, it only needed a little $5 Million to the PNM 2007 election fund to ensure that people like Karen could get elected, withdraw her money and persuade everyone to leave CLICO alone, she was going to rescue them! And Duprey, Monteil and others left free to keep collecting your premiums while Karen paid your EFPA interest for them.
And you who got screwed: You are now claiming that the EFPA was “approved” by government. Well, I do not think that approval of a “financial product” is a guarantee that government will pay you if the “product” fails.
You guys bought into this scheme knowing CLICO was insolvent, knowing that there had been no recent audits, and never asked just what was your money being invested in. The interest you were earning obviously did not come from Duprey’s ego-investments, but was paid by new fools joining the scheme.
Accept this, EFPA investors: If the PNM were in power, your interest payments would have stopped by now simply because they could not have been paid. And admire the PNM for their smartness in now blaming Kamla for your problems.
And blow a kiss to Karen, she laughing all the way to her bank!
And there is no end in sight to the PNM continuing to make mischief, quietly promoting all the “protests”, whether from Maxi operators, T&TEC workers, or “La Brea residents”, being bused into town in typical “Rent-a Crowd” fashion to protest the stopping of the smelter.
And thank God we stopped that one, can you imagine a Hungarian-type disaster flowing into Guapo Bay?
And simpering Hazel, beneficiary of her husband’s nepotistic favours, complaining about Local Government Reform, which she suppressed, to the extent of cancelling elections—three times!
Keep remembering, people, even as we find cause to criticize the Partnership on several fronts, that the problems they need to resolve first are the problems dumped upon us by the departing PNM. Do not be misled by those who now seek to defend the peoples’ interests. Surely, you cannot continue to be so stupid?
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