We know the thieves

The Prime Minister says the PP Government spent some $1.4 billion on “a small number” of private lawyers during its term in office. Supported by boxes he used as props on stage to demonstrate the number that would be required to hold millions in cash, Dr Rowley said his government knows everyone who was involved in corruption under its PP predecessor.

At a PNM public meeting on Thursday night at the Unit Trust car park in Sangre Grande, Dr Rowley said, “Let them not for one minute believe that we don’t know them.” He added, “I could whistle all them name.

“But leave them to the police.” Rowley said while the wheels of justice turn very slowly, “They do turn.” He declared, “There is going to be a reckoning and a retribution, if not for all of them, but at least for some of them at the appropriate time.” While the Government knows who the offenders are,Rowley said, “We have to stay very quiet and let the criminal law take its course.”

Should Government say too much, Rowley said, these people will “jump and play victim” and run to their lawyer friends. Using different sizes of boxes to show different amounts of money he said had been stolen, Rowley said after five years, the UNC had paid $1.4 billion of taxpayers’ money had been paid to a small handful of lawyers. He claimed this could only happen if people forgot about the public interest and “gave enrichment to a select few.”

He continued: “You will understand why there are so many lawyers in this country who are so anti-PNM and so anti- this government.” The PNM did not care about that, he said, but “We will tell you how they thief your money.” He quipped, “No other profession in this country ever got that largesse.”

Thanks to this small handful of lawyers, Rowley said, the legal profession is no longer an honourable one. “Set of blasted scamps, most of them,” he scoffed.

Dismissing Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s corruption claims against Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan, Rowley disclosed that while the PNM was in opposition, a PP minister refused to give a $3 million cheque to a businessman unless that minister was given $2 million. He claimed the businessman said if he did that, “I not going to get no more work.” Saying the Curepe Interchange was being built for $221 million instead of the $540 million planned under the PP, Rowley said Persad-Bissessar must tell the public “who in the (PP) cabal was going to get $300 million.”

He claimed the PP hid money throughout the country by digging holes and putting money in plastic barrels in those holes.