In the coming days, government ministers will provide the nation with details on all the cutbacks to be made in response to falling oil prices. So said Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar last evening as she responded to critics who knocked her for failing to give specific details on Government’s plans to address falling oil prices when she addressed the nation on Thursday.
Persad-Bissessar, addressing the South Caribbean Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists Vision One Million Rally at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, assured that even with the announcement of cutbacks, funding to faith-based organisations will not be affected. She also defended Government’s funding to faith-based organisations, which she said, “must never be a political decision. It simply must not.”
The PM said, “We will ensure that whatever we do to navigate this period, you, the people, will not carry the burden. We will not compromise on the important things, such as preserving the contribution of religious organisations, and protecting the quality of life of our people,” she said. Persad-Bissessar, who was welcomed at the event with thunderous applause, said she was clear in her address that because of declines in global prices for oil adjustments in expenditure plans would have to be made.
She defended her speech: “What I gave was a broad overview of how we will be adjusting our policies to ensure that we maintain spending where it is necessary, and scale back spending where we should.” To provide details then, she said, would have been lengthy and more of a “budget speech” than an address to the nation. She said ministers will give details on how those adjustments will be pursued.
Persad-Bissessar reiterated that citizens will not be made to feel the pinch of adjustments. She commended the SDA on their launch of 100 community projects to be initiated nationwide in 2015, which includes the feeding of 50,000 families and an award ceremony in March.