Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has warned Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley that T&T could face bankruptcy in 2018, unless the Government changes its direction, fixes its plans and reorders its priorities.
Persad-Bissessar sounded the warning at a press conference yesterday as she responded to Rowley’s address to the nation on Sunday night. She said she was “disappointed and disheartened” by what she heard in his message as it brought no hope for the country’s citizens, nor did it outlined the Government’s plans and initiatives.
She described Rowley’s address as a “regurgitation and rehash” of several broken promises.
“In an address to the nation at the start of 2018 we have the Prime Minister as a cry-baby... 28 months after he came into office…blame the previous government. It’s time to stop the crying and take charge,” Persad-Bissessar urged Rowley.
Since assuming office, Persad-Bissessar said Rowley’s Government has been running fiscal deficits, public debt soared and the overdraft at the Central Bank had been maxed out. Nor has there been any economic development.
“They have also increased their borrowing ceiling from the Central Bank. The Government has also been borrowing at higher and higher levels. They have failed to account to the people with regards to the billions of dollars they have spent.”
In 2016, she said T&T experienced its sharpest economic contraction in decades.
In the midst of pressures being put on citizens, she said Rowley has been urging the population to keep their hope alive.
Persad-Bissessar said if the Government does not move to stabilise “public debt I can see by April of this year Standards and Poor’s is likely to down our credit rating to junk status.”
This would affect how foreign investors view our economic management.
Persad-Bissessar said while Rowley promised a ferry for Tobago in the coming weeks, no one knows if it was bought, leased and at what cost.
She said more transparency was needed in this matter.