Trinidad and Tobago will see sweeping reforms in the way the country is governed should the People’s National Movement become the next government following the 2015 general election, its political leader Dr Keith Rowley says.
In a sit-down interview with the T&T Guardian on Friday, Rowley shared his vision for T&T, which included making the role of MP a full-time job, creating a new post whose office holder would monitor and report on MPs’ behaviour and strengthening oversight of government spending. He said “insufficient time” was being spent on the major assignment of the Parliament, namely examining the work of the executive.
“That is the problem and the main reason is that most of the people who are ministers busy with ministerial duties are not available to the Parliament, or there are opposition members who are operating on a part-time understanding,” he said. This, Rowley said, had to change and he had put on record his commitment to bringing about that change, putting all MPs on notice that more would be expected of them. He said even the opposition MPs had to be full time.
“Members of Parliament, for example, those who are not ministers, must be deemed full time. If that is the case, opposition members, whoever they are, PNM, whoever it is, opposition MPs must be available to the Parliament as operatives to spend more time on these issues. It is making a bigger demand on members’ time,” he said.
He said he expected that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar or prime ministers in general would not accept his plan because they “do not like systems of oversight over their government.” “When I had to say the reason I was fired (in 2008) was over Udecott, all hell broke loose,” he recalled as he referred to his tumultuous relationship with former prime minister Patrick Manning, who dismissed him as housing minister.
He said he was removed because he demanded accountability from Udecott, which at the time was “out of control.” Proper oversight of Udecott, he added, would have prevented the situation where it was facing a commission of enquiry and the then PNM government “would never have ended up in that situation reported in the Uff Commission.”
The commission uncovered poor procurement practices and gross administrative deficiencies. He lamented that a new government (the People's Partnership) came in after that problem and worsened the problem.
“The Government did absolutely nothing following our experience of 2009 and 2010, but this Government became a Government of the largest Cabinet ever, so instead of fixing the problem the Government worsened the problem,” he said. The PNM, he said, paid the penalty in the 2010 general election for poor oversight by losing office.
“We did not cry, we set about to fix it. I am here now standing on that solid ground with the full party support” to undertake the needed reform, he said.
Salary hike necessary
Rowley said logically, if MPs were moved from a part-time arrangement to a full-time one and emoluments were computed on that basis, then their salaries should reflect the increased commitment. “We are saying we need our parliamentarians full time...It does not affect ministers because ministers are in fact functioning full time, and are compensated as full time,” he said.
The PNM leader, who acknowledged there would be some resistance to his plans, said he was committed to bringing accountability and transparency back into government to fulfil the mandate of Section 75 (1) of the Constitution. That section states as follows: “There shall be a Cabinet for Trinidad and Tobago which shall have the general direction and control of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and shall be collectively responsible therefore to Parliament.”
He contended that the Parliament had authority to hold people publicly accountable. “I am raising this not in the context of this Opposition and this Government.
“I could go one step back to the last government, where I was a member of that last government and I got fired from that government for making these very points, that there is need for better oversight of the Cabinet by the Parliament,” he said. Cabinet was responsible for the executive management of the country and was accountable to the Parliament, he said. He noted, however, oversight of Cabinet by the Parliament had proved ineffective during successive administrations.
Rowley said in carrying out the public administrative reform he envisaged, one of the first tasks would be streamlining Cabinet, reducing it from the present 30 ministries to 20. “That is a commitment the PNM is making. There will be a smaller Cabinet.
“In other words, fewer MPs will be in the Cabinet to form the executive, so there are fewer MPs and that makes for a more efficient Cabinet dealing with policy and other serious matters. In terms of oversight, it means that there will be more members in the Parliament to do what the Constitution says, which is to have the Cabinet account to the Parliament,” he said.
He declined to say which ministries would be axed. However, he said the Ministries of Tobago Affairs and Local Government were not necessary. The Tobago House of Assembly, he said, was the statutory creature with overriding power for Tobago and the Tobago Affairs Ministry was a political tool created by this Government.
The numerous parliamentary standing committees, many of which were now ineffective due to the unavailability of MPs, would ensure accountability, he said.
Rowley said the current two hours for a committee meeting to review the reports of state agencies and enterprises was insufficient. Further, he said the infrequency of committee meetings, including those of the Public Accounts Committee, Joint Select Committee and Public Administration and Appropriations Committee, enabled corruption. “The best thing you can do for this country is improve our monitoring systems. As you monitor you report and you hold people accountable.
“I am not saying persecute or prosecute people, I am simply saying hold them accountable and come before the parliamentary committee,” he said. Rowley said he had the support of his election candidates and his party for his reforms.
“I am not giving the cabinet details. But a PM who wants to run a good government should not be afraid of his ministry being subjected to parliamentary oversight. It would assist the government to perform better and that is not something to be afraid of, it is something to be embraced,” the PNM leader concluded.
He is also proposing the creation of a new position of Head Of Standards and Ethics, with powers to monitor and report to Parliament on matters relating to the behaviour of Members of Parliament.
“This office, independent in its actions but part of the parliamentary oversight structure, could expose wrongdoing to the Parliament where there are breaches and do so in a transparent and timely manner for Parliament to deal with members without the delays and other procrastinations of the extra parliamentary processes.”