The Prime Minister says that the ongoing State of Emergency is also part of her administration's efforts to tackle state funding that had been directed to a well-entrenched criminal mafia.
This, as the Prime Minister says the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau is set to probe State contracts awarded under the former PNM administration.
00:00Just hours before her second administration marked 100 days in government, Prime Minister Kamala Passat-Besessa gave her assessment of the performance of two entities under the Ministry of Works during the former PNM administration, which had been in office for the past 10 years.
00:16Some individuals appear to have a corrupt, coordinated arrangement with individuals at NIPDEC to facilitate the funneling of billions of dollars in state contracts to a favoured few contractors.
00:32I've instructed the Minister to address the issue and to involve the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau to resolve these issues once and for all.
00:43And while the opposition has been critical of the first 100 days of the new UNC-led government, the Prime Minister expressed even more concerns about the former PNM administration.
00:54Today, it is a well-entrenched mafia holding our nation to ransom.
01:03This is further worsened by the past administration's open and unbridled embrace of Venezuelan immigrants who poured across our borders land and sea and air.
01:19And numbered amongst those were gang members, human traffickers, pimps, high-powered weaponry.
01:29The Prime Minister then spoke about this in the context of her new administration's recent decisions with regard to two specific state-funded programs.
01:40The stoppage of CPEP and the recalibration of URP for investigation and review has unearthed a resistance that reaches far and wide into the deep state.
01:54The resistance from the belly of the underworld has begun.
01:58Those spearheading the government's stated reform of these state-funded programs are Public Utilities Minister Barry Padrath, Local Government Minister Khadija Amin, and URP Program Manager Feroz Khan.
02:11And they will resort to going after anyone who leads or is involved in this crackdown, as they can see the beginning of the end has begun.
02:23They have already made threats to Khadija, to Feroz, to Barry.
02:29But I say never fear, because Kamala is here. Never fear.
02:34The Prime Minister spoke during the UNC's Monday night forum in Coover South, after Police Commissioner Alistair Guevaro appeared on the TV6 Morning Edition program to give an update on the state of emergency in effect in Trinidad and Tobago.
02:47So we now have, we first had the disruption of Detroit, we now have the dismantling of that organized criminal gang.
02:55The Prime Minister, who chairs the National Security Council, made reference to those detained during the SOE.
03:02They still have access to the courts, they still have access to their lawyers, they still got their family members to visit them.
03:09Those who are locked behind bars, they're not losing rights.
03:13Their rights remain, they're conscripted rights, but the rights of the majority far outweigh, far outbalance the criminal elements in our country.
03:25So, listen, all of you who live a law-abiding life, you have nothing to fear.
03:33The state of emergency, which began on July 18th, does not include a curfew and does not have any limitations on public gatherings.
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