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| "I will not tolerate, condone nor will I defend corrupt practices. I will not allow anyone to breach the sacred public trust..." |
She was speaking at a seminar at the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) for personnel who have been appointed to serve on state boards.
During the all day session, the officials heard presentations from Finance Minister Winston Dookeran, media icon and former cabinet minister Ken Gordon, and lawyers Ronnie Bissessar and Dion Abdul. Attorney General Anand Ramlogan and Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal also addressed the audience.
Persad-Bissessar outlined the responsibility that the boards bear for delivery of services and for handling large sums of money. And she warned them to be vigilant at all times and to be transparent in all their dealings.
"You have under your portfolios, control of huge sums of public money. The budgets of some of your corporations are in the billions of dollars. But whether it be billions, or millions or even thousands, the principle remains the same. Accountability must be the hallmark of your decisions," she said.
"I will not tolerate, condone nor will I defend corrupt practices. I will not allow anyone to breach the sacred public trust which I took as an obligation in my Oath of office. The People demand this of me and my administration," she declared.
"I demand this of anyone who serves under my administration. So if there is one salient message that each of you must take away at the end of today, it is that this Prime Minister is deadly serious about the issue of corruption."
The Prime Minister also emphasized the responsibility of each board member of a state enterprise to file timely declarations to the Integrity Commission, nothing that there is do way to get around that.
"The responsibility is between you and the Integrity Commission, but as Prime Minister and with your line Ministers we have to ensure, in keeping with the highest level of ethics and professional standards, this requirement is fulfilled.
"This government does not want to see the names of any of our board members published in full glare of national publicity as defaulters. This will not be acceptable.
"I have asked that we develop a system, either centrally or via the various line ministries, to enable us to ensure full compliance by all Board and Committee members...I will ask Cabinet to consider sanctions against any Board member who has not complied and has no sought a deferment from the Integrity Commission as provided for under the law.
"As a Government, we would have to consider whether we can permit any such member from continuing to serve," she said.
Persad-Bissessar extended her gratitude to everyone who has accepted the government's invitation to serve and noted that contrary to what some critics have said, she has had no difficulty finding people willing to accept board appointment.
However she said the task has taken long because the government wants to ensure that it selects people "of the calibre and competence to guide the multi faceted and diverse operations of government business through sound policies and oversight."
She said the task is almost complete with just a few more boards remaining. "The entire exercise may have taken some time but we wanted to be thorough and deliberate, within parameters I established such as no interlocking directorships.
"We wanted to broaden the resource base available to us and this necessitated a deeper search for competent people, outside the normal pool which was in the past characterised by nepotism and poor managerial quality," she said.
She noted that unlike other parties in government the People's Partnership has chosen to give a pin of the Trinidad and Tobago flag "to anyone we initiated into state enterprise service" as a small gesture that goes beyond symbolism.
"Wear it to constantly remind yourselves and the staff around you of the deep responsibility you now have to Mother Trinidad and Tobago."
She added, "Much faith has been reposed in all of you and much is expected. We will provide whatever tools and resources are necessary for effective discharge of your duties. In return we expect results and delivery to our people, performance firmly entrenched in the rubric of good governance."
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