Finance Minister Colm Imbert and Opposition Members, including former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar “butt heads” in yesterday’s Parliamentary Finance Committee session on Tobago House of Assembly expenditure when Imbert repeatedly rebuked the Opposition for asking him questions about THA expenditure based on 2015 estimates.
Imbert repeatedly told Opposition MPs they had been in government then and “should know” and that he would provide information in writing later.
Chairman of proceedings, House Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George, frequently had to “pull” Imbert up when he muttered complaints or voiced blunt disapproval of questions.
When Persad-Bissessar questioned $50 million spent in 2015 on a Shaw Park Cultural Complex, Imbert said if she had met THA requests to meet the THA, the issue might have been clear.
When UNC MP Suruj Rambachan questioned large THA contract labour costs, Imbert said he would get the response but saw “no difference between that and what the UNC did in Trinidad... you had thousands,” he retorted.
UNC’s Tim Gopeesingh expressed concern that with Imbert’s answers “everything is in writing.”
He said proceedings were open to television viewers and the public was being robbed of the details of issues. He called it a “cover up,” a term Annisette-George suggested he replace. Gopeesingh said the situation was less than transparent.
When Opposition Whip Roodal Moonilal asked Imbert to explain a THA $1 million figure which was revised to $17 million, Imbert said he would try, “but you should know, you paid for it.”
After Moonilal sought a breakdown of certain 2015 figures, Imbert said it was “unconscionable” for the UNC to ask the Government to explain what happened in 2015 under their watch when the PNM had been the government for only a few weeks.
Moonilal at another point remarked that Imbert “in his arrogant way had replied to another query. To which Imbert retorted: “What is this about arrogant? Who more arrogant than you?”
Persad-Bissessar queried the chairman’s move to disallow a “general” question by UNC MP Bhoe Tewarie since Annisette-George said general queries had to be in line with Budget items. Persad- Bissessar said the query was disallowed before MPs heard it.
Tewarie told the media he felt the chairman needed to show a little more flexibility. He said the Opposition had the right to seek variances or amendments but without proper probe of issues, he couldn’t see the need for the committee.
“They need to understand that being in charge means taking responsibility and being accountable,” he added.
Government House leader Camille Robinson-Regis said Government was being asked about periods when the PP was in office. She said Imbert wasn’t being difficult but was being “the same as you have known him in government in the last 20 years.”