No $M foreigners needed to reduce crime: Warner

Jack Warner

Jack Warner said on Monday the government was able to get a decline in crime hotspots without spending millions on foreigners.

The National Security Minister made specific reference to the $80 million the previous Manning PNM administration spent on the Stephen Mastrofski plan and the $10 million paid to Major-General Cameron Ross.

Speaking in the budget debate Warner said there were 81 murders in Laventille this year, with the last one reported on September 9. He mentioned some other areas as well:

• Four Roads - 10 murders, the last one on September 10
• West End (Diego Martin) - 14 murders, the last one on September 10
• Carenage - four murders, the last one on June 16

"Never before in this country's history that ever happen. And I didn't have Mastrofski, I didn't have Ross, I didn't have of course two Canadians. What we had were people who were committed to change," Warner said.

Warner said murders are declining all across the country. "What PNM was in power this was unheard of," Warner said. The minister noted that while the PNM is continuing to tell people crime is out of control the facts show otherwise.

He also took issue with Laventille West MP Nileung Hypolite for "taking a murder from Beetham and putting it in Laventille" to prove Warner wrong about his statement that there had not been in murder in Laventille in 26 days.

Warner also told legislators the Government inherited many problems in law enforcement from the PNM administration, noting that the People’s Partnership found a demoralised T&T Regiment, the Coast Guard and the Police Service when they took office.

He said the Panday UNC administration that established the Joint Operational Unit under Coast Guard commander Richard Kelshall to fight the drug trade. He stated that between 1995 and 2001, the unit intercepted narcotics valued at $14 billion. However he said when the PNM took office, it dismantled the unit and set up the National Incidents Command Centre.

Warner also went after Opposition Leader Keith Rowley, saying he would make an application to make the secret Annestine Sealey Commission of Enquiry report on the Landate Housing issue a parliamentary paper. "I'm telling Mr Integrity that this issue is not dead," he said in reference to Rowley.

He also targeted PNM officials in Tobago accusing them of being unable to account for the money given to them. "Tobago swimming in a sea of corruption," he claimed.

He spoke about a property in Plymouth that he said the THA gave to (PNM) party associate Irma Eastman for 99 years at $50 a year. "This thing must stop," he said, noting that the monthly lease that Eastman is paying amounts to the price of one doubles.