Government lays papers on ankle monitors and car tints

THE Government used the occasion of budget day to lay some 69 reports/papers in the House of Representatives on Monday, substantially cutting into the time of Finance Minister Colm Imbert to present his much-awaited budget. These included regulations for offender ankle monitors and car tints. Also laid were the 2019 annual reports of the Police Complaints Authority and Police Service Commission. The Central Bank report on the restructuring of Clico was also laid.

New regulations for the Housing Development Corporation were laid. Annual reports were laid for WASA, the National Investment Fund, the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Planning and National Trust, among others.

Financial statements were laid for the Bureau of Standards, TT Mortgage Finance Company, Point Lisas Industrial Development Company, TT Tourism Board, NAMDEVCO, and National Flour Mills. Auditor General reports on several municipal corporations were laid. From the former Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts came a White Paper on the National Cultural Policy and a statement on the petition to remove Christopher Columbus monuments in TT.

The majority of reports, some 34, were ministerial responses to reports already laid by various joint select committees (JSCs) of Parliament.

The House also heard tributes to former La Brea MP the late Fitzgerald Jeffrey, and parliamentary clerk the late Sheranne Samuel, both who recently died.