3 weeks ago
5
Minister of Trade, Investment and Tourism Satyakama Maharaj. - File photo by Faith AyoungGOVERNMENT and opposition MPs argued over expenditure for planting poui trees and Cepep as the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives continued its deliberations on the 2025/2026 budget on October 23.
This argument happened before the committee approved a $285,517,600 allocation for the Trade, Investment and Tourism Ministry.
In response to questions from opposition MPs, Trade, Investment and Tourism Minister Kama Maharaj spoke about a plan to beautify highways through the planting of poui trees along their sides at a cost of approximately $1 million.
A similar initiative was undertaken during the 2010-2015 tenure of the UNC-led People's Partnership coalition government. Maharaj compared this initiative to similar ones in Asian countries like Japan which involved the planting of cherry blossom trees.
In response to questions from Port of Spain South MP Keith Scotland, Maharaj said it was hoped that volunteers and maybe school children would be involved in planting poui trees.
Scotland asked Maharaj if this meant government would be paying school children to do the exercise.
He said former Cepep workers were involved in doing similar exercises before they were fired from their jobs and the programme was terminated.
Scotland's comments asked why these workers could not have been retained for this purpose. His comments resulted in inaudible responses being directed at him from the government's benches. Scotland countered, "You should be ashamed."
Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo announced the termination of Cepep and URP in his budget presentation in the House on October 13. He said, "To this end, I have established an Employment Fund in the Ministry of Finance with $475 million."
He added both programmes would be replaced by full-time and better-paid jobs.
During the committee's meetings on October 21 and 22, Social Development Minister Vandana Mohit and Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath hinted former Cepep workers could apply to the ongoing National Recruitment Drive for employment opportunities.
In her budget response on October 17, Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles noted Tancoo's statement about Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar addressing the Cepep/URP issue in her contribution to the debate. Persad-Bissessar and several other government ministers did not speak in the debate before it ended on October 17.
Beckles asked whether the unemployment fund mentioned in the budget to replace Cepep and URP would be a different form of political patronage for UNC family and friends.
English (US) ·