Skip to playerSkip to main content
CCNTV6
  • 2 years ago
The Prime Minister says he is determined to pass the Whistleblower Protection Bill, and will make changes to the proposed legislation to achieve this if it cannot get the support of the Opposition for a special majority.


Urvashi Tiwari Roopnarine has the details.
Transcript
00:00The Prime Minister pilots the whistleblower protection bill in the lower house, saying
00:06inspiration came from the government of 2010 to 2015.
00:10It was a period of many decades of either knowing or having reason to believe that there
00:17was just too much corrupt practice in Trinidad and Tobago, but when it was made official
00:24and sanctioned and encouraged by the government of the day in the way that it was being done
00:29during that period, Madam Speaker, people had a right to see it as probably the number
00:35one issue in the election campaign.
00:37In public life for over 40 years, corruption, Dr. Rowley says, is everywhere.
00:43And as a country, we are fooling ourselves by thinking otherwise.
00:46It does not apply to any particular location, any particular category of person, any particular
00:55station of persons in the society, Madam Speaker, instances of corruption or indications
01:03of corrupt practice surface from every layer and every facet of Trinidad and Tobago, even
01:10the clergy.
01:12And there are persons, he believes, who know about such acts but are unwilling to speak.
01:18The law makes provision that if you've made a complaint and you want to know what has
01:24happened with your complaint, that the receiver should be able to give you a response.
01:31That's only reasonable.
01:34A whistleblowing reporting officer will be prohibited from revealing the identity of
01:41a whistleblower without his prior consent in writing.
01:46Dr. Rowley has got wind of unwillingness by the opposition to support the bill if it requires
01:52a special majority.
01:54In that case, he says, half a loaf is better than none.
01:57If it turns out that it does not mean, that it requires a special majority, and our colleagues
02:05on the other side would not support it, I will ask the Attorney General to make necessary
02:11adjustment and we'll pass what we can pass with the majority that we have, and that may
02:20not be the strongest position, that may not be the strongest position, that may not be
02:26the strongest position, but it will be a much stronger position than where we are at the
02:31moment.
02:33Quipping back from the opposition bench, Dr. Rudal Munilal says the bill has not changed
02:37since 2022, nor has his position.
02:41He says there have always been allegations of corruption in the country, the region and
02:46the world.
02:47The Prime Minister spoke a bit about history, and the history not only of the bill, but
02:52the history of issues of corruption in Trinidad and Tobago.
02:56The Prime Minister did not go as far back as the McDonnell-Douglas scandal, did not
03:03go far back as other matters under the Eric Williams administrations of the 1960s and
03:111970s, the Lock Joint scandal.
03:16Many of my colleagues opposite may not have been born during the scandals that took this
03:23country by storm, including former ministers of the party that they now proudly represent.
03:32Dr. Munilal advises the government to take note of why people are unwilling to say something
03:38when they see something.
03:40The reason people say nothing, the reason citizens say nothing, the reason the mother
03:44says nothing, the reason the witness says nothing, the reason the person in the corporate
03:49sector says nothing, is because they have no confidence in public institutions.
03:54They have no confidence.
03:55Whether it is the police, whether it is an institution in the government, they have no
04:00confidence.
04:02And your first task is to build or rebuild confidence.
04:06Debate continues in the Lua House.
04:09Arvishi Tamwari, Rupanarayan, TV6 News.
Be the first to comment
Add your comment