“I am coming for you!”
This was the warning from Attorney General (AG) Faris Al-Rawi yesterday as he spoke of rooting out corruption from the rank and file of state institutions.
Al-Rawi, the member of Parliament for San Fernando West, was speaking at the launch of the San Fernando City Corporation’s (SFFC) city-wide clean-up campaign, at the SFFC compound on Carib Street, San Fernando.
“The task is to remove corruption from the rank and file of the State. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a task that falls to me as Attorney General in large part, and I want to send a message to T&T: We are very serious about holding people accountable for public money,” said Al Rawi. “As AG, I don’t intend to be bombastic, I don’t intend to run around saying: ‘I’m coming for you and I’m coming for you and I’m coming for you’.
“But I want to let you know: I am coming for you!”
He said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has given the directive for honest and efficient performance.
“And I want to let you know that the PM has given a simple clear directive, this country needs to be honest, this country can pay for everything that it needs to pay for if everyone is honest and efficient in the systems.
“With no witch hunting in mind but with accountability in mind and so, this message is not for any political opponent, it is for all of T&T: be honest and be efficient in what you do because the law will be applied to bring you to account for what you have done.”
Questioning the previous administration’s $400 billion expenditure during their tenure, Al-Rawi said the nation’s second city had been neglected for the past five years.
“San Fernando proper and its environs have been neglected for a very long time, we have not had our fair share of the national pie, our city has been neglected. Life needs to return to our city, corruption needs to be rooted out, cleanliness needs to be in mind, body, spirit and place. For far too long we have asked ourselves where has $400 billion in five years been spent?” Al-Rawi said in the last fiscal year, the corporation’s public health budget was cut to nothing.
“The SFFC had its public health budget reduced to zero dollars and zero cents a year ago. What we got from the last ministry of Local Government was the entire allocation for public health removed from the San Fernando East, West, Pointe-a-Pierre and parts of Oropouche that we represent.”
He praised the council for managing without the funds for the year and promised the PNM administration would do things differently.
“But we haven’t come as a Government to do the same thing, the same way and expect different results, we have come as a Government to do two very important things which include volunteerism and to change the systemic structure of the SFFC.”
He explained that the new structure would allow the corporation to collect its own revenue from San Fernandians. Also speaking at the launch was president of the San Fernando Business Association Daphne Bartlett, who called on the new administration not to neglect projects like the San Fernando Waterfront Development project.