Calling on Government to say when the DNA Bank will be set up and when the criminal justice system will be reformed, the Movement for Social Justice yesterday called for clear policy decisions to tackle crime and corruption in T&T.
Speaking at a press conference at the party’s St Joseph Village headquarters yesterday, MSJ leader David Abdulah said T&T’s murder rate may be more than 500 for 2016 given current trends.
He said when Finance Minister Colm Imbert presented the budget last Friday he did not address the injustice being faced in the nation’s prisons.
“The safety and security of citizens is not being acted upon. The murder count is 344 and at the rate we going, we will have 500 people being murdered before the end of 2016. Ria Sookdeo was kidnapped and up to now there has been nothing about that in terms of progress,” Abdulah said.
He said before the debate ends in Parliament, Government must say by when will the DNA Bank be established.
Saying there must also be an end to white collar crime, Abdulah said the Financial Intelligence Unit should be given the powers to investigate criminals.
He pointed out that the FIU had found over 2,000 suspicious transactions totalling several billion dollars in the last couple years and nothing was done.
“We want specific time tables with regard to the transformation of the FIU, giving them the power to investigate those suspicious transactions so that the evidence can be obtained for people to be prosecuted,” Abdulah said.
He added that the Proceeds of Crime Act must also be passed so that those who accumulate wealth suspiciously could have their assets seized by the State.
“We also want them to say when a proper witness protection programme will be established. We have to put in place the capacity for forensic evidence. We want clear policies on the state of the forensic lab. We want to know how the criminal justice system is going to be reformed, because we cannot have a situation where the High Court is dispensing with 25 trials and 500 people are still waiting to get their trials started,” he said.
Abdulah added that Government must say how the backlog of cases are going to be dealt with within a reasonable timeline.
MSJ party organiser Akins Vidale also said the budget should have been pegged to a price of $45 per barrel. He said it was also worrisome that Government was selling out profitable State assets while other unprofitable State companies were becoming a burden to the State.
“The IPOs are also cause for some concern, as we continue to divest FCB in particular, our only remaining indigenous bank,” Vidale said.
He said the current measure to reduce the subsidy even further is understandable, but it must have come along with real measures to protect the vulnerable given the realities of our pricing mechanisms.