Rowley: We will not waste time playing the blame game if elected

Published on May 20, 2015, 9:19 pm AST

Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley has promised the business community if he is elected to office his Government will hit the ground running, and will not waste time witch-hunting the former Government or playing the blame game.

Speaking at yesterday's "Beyond the Ballot" breakfast meeting hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce at the Hilton Trinidad, St Ann's Rowley also promised to address concerns raised by the private sector, including the shortage of labour, crime, corruption, traffic and public procurement.

"What we expect is that when a PNM Government comes into office we will do like we did in 1991 when we came in office in a very difficult period-we didn't spend time crying and complaining and blaming the NAR for taking us to the IMF, we buckled down and made some very serious interventions that took us out of where we were and some very positive things happened in that period. In 2001 we came back into office and we did not waste time chasing down the previous administration. We set about trying to monetise oil and gas and we created the LNG industry," he said.

Asked if his party had any intention of phasing out the CEPEP and URP work programmes to deal with the labour shortage in the private sector, Rowley said this will not be done, but a PNM Government will not allow the programmes to grow to such an extent that they threaten the need for labour in the private sector.

He said it could not be right that while the budget for make-work programmes was growing and the country's employment has reached full capacity, the private sector continued to experience problems in getting labour.

"There is a disconnect between those things, so we will have to balance that-people who need support will get support and persons who are there on the basis of excesses, we will curb the excess."

Asked by businessman Arthur Lok Jack about how he intends to manage the national budget with a view to getting value for money, Rowley said a PNM government will ensure there is accountability and good governance.

He said the party is not opposed to borrowing, but the money must be spent on areas that will build the country and the country must be in a position to repay its debt.

"I grew up in a household. I had five brothers and a father who lived off the earnings of a peasant farmer. We were taught from at home that it is not what you work for but it's what you do with it," he said.

"In the house I live in now I could never have built if I didn't borrow 30 years ago and built it. Borrowing allows you to do things now because you don't have the cash in hand. Good governance in Trinidad and Tobago could be accompanied by a greater use of debt but without good governance, I would want to see Trinidad and Tobago staying away from debt growth," Rowley said.

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