OPPOSITION MPs emphasised the need for transparency and accountability in government spending as the motion for supplementary appropriations of $2.3 billion was passed in Parliament on June 7.
Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein noted a request was made for Attorney General Reginald Armour to provide the names of the attorneys to which additional funding going to the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs would be paid.
Speaking at the debate of the motion to adopt the report of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, supplementary appropriations for the 2024 financial year, Hosein said at first, Armour refused but later decided to provide the names of the attorneys who consented to disclose their names.
He said originally Amour requested $45 million to pay legal fees and an additional $120 million during the Mid-Year Review for a total of $165 million. He said the Opposition had yet to see the document with the information but the fees of those who consented amounted to $10 million while the fees of those who did not amounted to $51 million.
“And today, Trinidad and Tobago does not know who this $51 million is paid to. This is not the money from Balisier House. This is not the PNM money. This is the taxpayers of Trinidad and Tobago money. So Madam Speaker, the government has a duty of disclosure, transparency and accountability to the people of Trinidad and Tobago to let them know where the money has gone, and who is being paid with this enormous allocation of $165 million.”
The report of the Standing Finance committee proposed $124.3 million to the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs for the Supplementary Appropriation for fiscal year 2024. Hosein said under Armour, the TT government had the highest legal bills in the country’s history at $190 million in 2023 and $165 million in 2024.
He said disclosure of fees should be a condition of hiring attorneys as such disclosure was a settled practice, and listed several occasions in the past, by both the UNC and PNM governments, when this was done without consent by the attorneys.
“If you want to collect taxpayers money, be ready to be accountable and transparent to the taxpayers.
“We believe, on the Opposition Bench, Madame Speaker, that this government owes a duty of candour. They owe a duty of full disclosure, to be accountable and transparent to the taxpayers of TT.”
Imbert: We don’t have to spend full $2.3b
During his contribution, Finance Minister Colm Imbert first addressed the remarks of the Opposition, describing the statements of the Opposition Leader, that the country was bankrupt and the economy collapsed, as “ridiculous.”
He went on to quote the June 5 International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on TT which said TT was experiencing a gradual and sustained economic recovery for the first time in ten years.
It praised the government’s fiscal policies, its management of the public debt, diversification efforts and moves to strengthen its tax regime, its climate and gr
