AG: People shot dead in bed over laptop contracts under Life Sport

ATTORNEY GENERAL Faris Al-Rawi on Friday claimed people were murdered, as they slept, for laptop contracts stemming from the controversial Life Sport programme.

The Life Sport programme, which was the brainchild of then sports minister Anil Robert, now an Opposition Senator, was found to be fraught with corruption and was shut down by prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar in July 2014, two years after it began, and after an audit by the Ministry of Finance.

Speaking during the Finance Bill 2020 on Friday, Al-Rawi, who at the time was responding to St Augustine MP Khadijah Ameen, said: “In Life Sport, we saw millions of dollars worth of laptops. People were shot dead in their beds over laptops and Life Sport.”

Ameen, who called for taxes on online shopping to be waived as well as desktops to be included in list of devices that will not attract import taxes, said earlier in the debate that laptops were made available to children but was stopped under the PNM.

Al-Rawi said the issue with laptops distributed under the People’s Partnership was a lack of accountability. He added that while the former administration was distributing laptops, the cost of the devices were increasing.

“There was a contract for laptops for all. In Life Sport we saw million of dollars worth of laptops.”

Earlier in the debate, Oropouche West MP Davendranath Tancoo accused the government of mismanaging the economy to the point that it collapsed and was now blaming covid19.

“The PNM has failed to create an environment for investment. This bill offers investors no hope at all. The World Economic Freedom Index, in 2015 TT ranked 67 in the world and 13 in the region, now TT is at 109th in the world and 21st in the region.”

Regarding the use of devices Tancoo said it took Finance Minister Colm Imbert, “five long years” to realise the vision that he inherited but did not follow through on regarding laptops for all children.

“It took a global pandemic for this minister to recognize the importance of training our young children and future generations. There are 100,000 disenfranchised children. This (bill) should have come 10 months ago.”