Time to bring on the audits

THE EDITOR: Tragically, Lisa Morris-Julian and two of her children perished in the recent Arima fire. Calls are now being made from every sector for an audit into the Fire Service. Methinks an audit on this one organisation is long overdue.

Bring on the auditors, preferably headed by the current Auditor General, the one lady who challenged Colm Imbert. In our efforts to be transparent, let us not be prejudicial; let’s not only audit the Fire Service, but every state institution and the many organisations that come, year in, year out, cap in hand, demanding our tax dollars. A few of the organisations that come to mind are the PTSC, Pan Trinbago, CDA, EMA, TUCO, CAL, the Emancipation Support Committee.

Any audit of value must begin with the hard-working, dedicated, committed men and women of the Police Service. Given that the murder count for the year has surpassed 600, and with a couple days remaining, this audit should prove informative.

We know the murder rate last year was about the same. And the only reason the two previous years reflected lower was due to the covid19 restrictions and lockdowns. Thus, a call for an audit of the police should prove quite beneficial.

If accurate, it should reveal the hundreds of functionally abandoned vehicles parked up across the nation, many strategically hidden from the public’s view. It should reveal their cache of arms and ammunition, together with the bodycams which are being kept safely in a storeroom. It should tell us about evidence storage and protection. It would be interesting to learn how much evidence has been consumed by rats, both guns and drugs.

Drug bust after drug bust has been made in raid after raid, where high-powered weapons have also been discovered. Illegal immigrants, of all nationalities, have been turning up by the trainload across the nation. Yet no one has called for an audit into the Coast Guard. Nor has a similar call be made for an audit into Customs and Excise. Drugs, weapons, cellphones and other contraband items show up in prison with each shakedown. Yet no call has ever been made for an audit of the Prison Service. These organisations can also do with a good, old-fashioned audit.

I suggest we also run an audit on our friendly part-time water providers at WASA. Perhaps we can learn how many upper-level managers they have in total, knowing they just hired 24. And we might ask, rhetorically, what do they really manage? Perhaps we can seek to ascertain if the water levels in the various dams ever rises, despite the past few months of rains, floods and “yellow alerts.”

A valuable piece of info would be the amount of silt at the bottom of the dams and the number of leaks per constituency. Perhaps we might learn how many contractors they have on board, and how are they related to members of the governing party. Be sure to identify the number of water trucks charging residents for “free water.”

Another institution that could certainly use an audit would be the health sector. Hopefully, we might learn the actual number of defibrillators, EKG machines, CT scan machines, MRI units, X-ray units, ventilators, ultrasound units, patient monitors, etc that are in the respective regional state hospitals. And then we might ask: how many of these units are functional?

All sarcasm aside, several questions come to mind regarding the call for this audit. Why are audit calls being made here which have never been made elsewhere? Was it because the victim was a member of Parliament? Or was it because she was a member of the PNM? Would an audit turn up stuff about the police that the nation doesn’t know? What makes Morris-Julian’s life more significant than the thousands of murder victims, just counting the last ten years? Do all lives matter?

For decades the PNM has been pushing the narrative that “this is PNM country.” Keith Rowley and this current batch of political misfits have made that abundantly clear since 2015, while blaming the opposition, despite one of his members also making it abundantly clear that “we are in charge.” Rowley’s continuous finger-pointing, while addressing adults across the nation as if we are his children, speaks volumes to those of us who understand body language. It is either you are in charge or not.

Then again, the PNM has a history of blaming others for its massive incompetence. It has been doing so with impunity since 1956. That the "minister of water" can boldly call the Fire Service and demand it retracts its statement about Arima having no water is consistent with its MO of bullying and incompetence.

RUDY CHATO PAUL, SR

D'Abadie