Kamla tells PM: Do like Boris in UK – call inquiry into covid19 handling

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar will write to the prime minister on Tuesday, asking for a commission of inquiry to examine the government’s management of and expenditure on the covid19 pandemic.

Speaking at the United National Congress’s (UNC) Monday night Virtual Report, Persad-Bissessar noted the UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson’s recent concession to calls for his government to set up an inquiry.

Persad-Bissessar said, “I call on you, Prime Minister, as head of the Cabinet, to advise her Excellency the President that it is advisable, and for the public welfare, to appoint a commission of inquiry under the Commissions of Inquiry Act Chapter 19.01 to inquire into the Trinidad and Tobago Government's response to the covid19 pandemic and any related matters.

“And to make such findings, observations and recommendations arising out of its deliberations as the commission may deem appropriate.”

She said its  terms of reference should be:

“To inquire into the basis and advice which informed the Government in instituting each measure under the Public Health Ordinance; the basis and advice which informed the government in instituting a state of emergency in May 2021 and any regulations made thereunder; the methods of collecting covid19-related health data and their policy behind its dissemination to the public.”

Persad-Bissessar said she does not believe the country is being told the “full truth” about the way this data is being collected.

“So we will see on a weekend and on a Monday the numbers go down. We will see the graphs, they will show us the graphs: they go up and then they go down.

“Because how? When are you measuring?

“I am told on the weekends the health data is not being collected in the same way as during the week. So we need to see (the) methods (of) collecting covid health data and the policy in dissemination of that said data.”

She said the government must also reveal its method of obtaining scientific advice and the extent in which the advice was followed to guide its decisions, as well as the “priorities and government decisions and the method used to manage competing priorities.”

She wrote to the PM that it is in his remit to advise the President under the relevant law.