A PNM Government’s plans to tackle T&T’s main problem— crime. It will start with the quality of the Police Service and will also focus on reducing violent crime and importantly, white collar crime, Opposition Leader Keith Rowley said yesterday. And there will be no bargaining to get posts in a PNM Government or bargaining to preserve it.
Rowley also said, “(This) thing about a man going on a strike or a hunger strike to get a post, the bargaining and horse trading we see going on— we’ll have none of that.” Rowley made the points in giving an overview of key areas in PNM’s 2015 general election policy for its manifesto. Venue was Radisson Hotel, Port-of-Spain. He said yesterday’s exercise would probably be the last before the PNM entered the election campaign.
Rowley told participants their role in coming weeks and months was critical as communicators of PNM policy. He said if PNM didn’t put out its message, people could reasonably say they hadn’t heard or seen its policy. He said PNMites had to convince the average citizen who relied on reporting for information, or commentators.
He said the public will want to know what the PNM will do in government after election day and questions PNMites would have to answer is what “what will the coming of a PNM Government mean” for improvement in the quality of life for all, and how it will change what is there now. Rowley said if attendees could address those, the average citizen would see a better prospect under a PNM Government.
He said the first area a new government would have to respond to is crime and security, an issue which all PNM polls have found the majority of citizens are concerned about. He said the problem was a very broad subject and went to the root of social and economic systems and physical infrastructure, the Police Service, information gathering apparatus and relationships with neighbouring states and international one. Rowley said the situation couldn’t be solved overnight by writing a cheque and would require a sustained approach with no let up.
“We start with the Police Service where responsibility lies primarily and the quality of that Police Service,” he added. He said a PNM government would include overview/oversight mechanisms for public funds via a General Accounting Office (GAO) to facilitate a window on how funds are being managed.
He said instead of “hearing politicians bussing a mark on a platform” or Parliament, the GAO would allow for interventions regarding money being spent by Government departments to ensure proper handling. The GAO’s powers would allow for immediate action if interventions are needed.
CHANGES TO LOCAL GOVT
He said the most fundamental change—to be done as early as possible—would be Local Government reform removing ministerial control and allowing authority to corporations in the Tobago House of Assembly model. Corporations would handle social services, old age pension, URP, maintenance, recreational and some security. Allocation of resources would be database driven.
“The only loss will be the Local Government minister and his entourage,” Rowley added. Local Government workers will remain and specialists skills will be needed in various areas. He assured consultation would be done. He stressed it was very important to have early in PNM’s term, a revenue collection agency.
Also early in its term, PNM would call for a national forum to discuss health care. To get value for money it has to be determined if conflict of interest is impacting on getting this, he said and the situation must be examined to ensure Government didn’t spend “more and get less and less.”
Rowley said urgent public service review was needed since the service was a “hodge podge of quiet public servants and insecure contract workers, perhaps numbering thousands” on two and three-year contracts, overall affecting its effectiveness. He said contract workers had been meant to strengthen and augment the service.
He said the situation would be examined to ensure a modernised career PS structure and contract workers would be used for the original intention. The PNM will take good advice on a mass transport system and if it is said that it is best to construct a new transport system which is a rail system “then the PNM is committed to doing it,” he added.
FULL-TIME MPS
Rowley said there will be a smaller PNM cabinet and full time MPs for a more effective Parliament and accountability systems on allocation of resources and Budget funds. Rowley said people thought ministers managed the Treasury, but other people also manage far more of T&T’s monies and are accountable to no one, virtually a law unto themselves.
Major interventions at primary school level would properly indoctrinate students to ensure they are well educated by secondary level. A PNM government will also stress economic growth by strengthening economic management at all levels of government.
PNM SCREENING
Rowley said the PNM’s screening was done to ensure selection of the right people to settle down to the job he’d outlined in PNM’s policies. He said the most important assignment a prime minister would have is that of assigning the right people. “But if bad decisions were consistently made to choose one’s friends and family” it wasn’t surprising in one term 20 ministers in a Cabinet were changed.
He added it was alright to have a reshuffle, but changing four/five ministers in one portfolio was a sign of failure. He said PNM’s procedures would bring stability, PNM ministers would buckle down to the job and Cabinet reshuffles wouldn’t be a regular “fete.”