Duke threatens to burn university degrees

Watson Duke
Watson Duke

PRESIDENT of the Public Service Association (PSA) Watson Duke called on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to either start handling affairs of public servants or call a general election now.

Duke also threatened to burn university certificates and degrees in the public domain, because a lot of people cannot get work.

He made the call yesterday at a press conference at PSA’s headquarters, Abercromby Street, Port of Spain.

“We are not in the mood to play or to wait for the mid-year review. We have taken a meticulous look at some of the spending of our prime minister. Just to name a few, paintings for $3 million, we had grooming the golf course for $3 million, the THA deposited $8 million into an account in England and it disappeared immediately, $6 million in the failure of Rohan Sinanan in acquiring a fast ferry – they had to pay that to Caribbean Airlines and then $10 million on some minister who was in charge of public administration and who fell sick.”

“If there is no solution by now and next Friday, we will appoint a day when we will burn publicly, university certificates and degrees in (Woodford) Square because they amount to nothing. It is serious, we intend to have a public demonstration because these things mean nothing to these people in the country.”

He said since last year, more than 25,000 people lost their jobs, not only government workers, but people working in agriculture who are independent contractors.

“All that is taking place while my members in the PSA, 80,000 public servants in this country, continue to catch their tail, wondering where their next meal coming from, wondering how they will pay their debt collectors. (All this) while there is make-believe talk that there is no money in the country.

“All of these people have not been reported to the Ministry of Labour. We have a scientific way of addressing job losses in the public domain. A lot of things have been increasing continuously in TT. Fuel…with gas and diesel increase, taxi fares on the rise, making it harder to get to and from work.”

Duke said there are a lot of issues the government is not addressing which include foreign pharmaceuticals coming into the country which are not being tested, the threat of further joblessness by creating the TT Revenue Authority, by destroying WASA, Customs, Immigration and Petrotrin.

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"Duke threatens to burn university degrees"

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