THE Prime Minister said on Friday corruption was widespread in TT, even reaching the clergy and MPs, as he laid the Whistleblower Bill 2022 in the House of Representatives, which he hoped would encourage people to expose wrongdoing in the private or public sector.

The bill's long title says it aims to "combat corruption and other wrongdoings by encouraging and facilitating disclosures of improper conduct", to protect whistleblowers from detrimental action, and to regulate the handling of such disclosures.

Dr Rowley said a "huge number" of instances of corruption took place in 2010-2015, encouraged by the government of the day, (the People's Partnership.)

The PM said that with corruption as the top issue in the 2015 general election, the PNM had promised to make it easier for people to disclose what they knew, so as to hold wrongdoers accountable.

He said very early in its term, his Government had drafted the 2022 bill and sent it to a joint select committee (JSC) so it would not be partisan.

The PM related upon his Government taking office, it had evidence of corruption including sums involved and perpetrators.

"Some of those investigations involved members of the House, some of whom are in the House today and may take part in the debate.

"Allegations of corruption are not just 'old talk', but in many instances are supported by serious, disturbing pools of fact."

He said while the public often complained the police knew nothing, some people had information on corruption whose disclosure could help TT create a climate of honesty and integrity.

Rowley said despite billions spent globally on auditing in the public and private sectors, experts said that work identified only 15 per cent of corruption and wrongdoing.

"These audits are only able to unearth a minuscule fraction of the matters of concern," he lamented.

The PM in contrast said the bill would encourage people to disclose what they knew, so wrongdoers could be held to account, rather than having corruption grow and fester.

"I have been in public life for 40 odd years, and I can tell you the one thing I am alarmed about – and I feel sometimes we are not in a position to even scratch the surface of the problem – is the pervasive nature of corruption across TT.

"It does not apply to any particular location, any particular category of person, any particular station or person in the society. Instances of corruption or indications of corrupt practice surface from every layer and every facet of TT, even the clergy."

He recalled a one-term past MP. "When I got to know him, I discovered he was thrown out of a church for mishandling church money."

The PM recalled his days at the University of the West (UWI), Mona, Jamaica, where someone once complained his music speakers were stolen at Aquinas House where priests were trained.

"That kind of shake me up. He is going to be a priest and maybe a bishop some time. It is everywhere and everybody.

"The frailty of human beings where people want to get more than they are allowed, to get benefi