00:00MP and former Finance Minister Colm Imbert began the opposition's response to the government's mid-year review of the 2025
00:07-2026 budget in the House of Representatives.
00:11During the budget we pointed out that the Minister of Works and Infrastructure had not been allocated sufficient funds to
00:19even patch one per ton.
00:21We said that in October 2025 and what do they do now? They give the whole government $92 million in
00:29development.
00:30There's something going on in this government. I don't know. There's some kind of jealousy that the member is put
00:36to act as Prime Minister so the Honourable Member is being sabotaged.
00:40I don't expect the member to say anything.
00:43MP and former Finance Minister Colm Imbert also spoke to what he identified as a nine-month delay regarding legislation
00:48for the government's unemployment fund.
00:52So doing things properly is putting $475 million in the budget to help poor people and then not spending it
01:00and not helping poor people. That is how you do things properly.
01:05MP Imbert referred to the government having said the majority of its mid-year supplementation is to pay for new
01:12salaries and wages in the public sector.
01:15It's over past $6 billion now I'm counting in terms of back pay. $6 billion in back pay and maybe
01:22$600-$700 million a year.
01:24Reference was made to the Finance Ministry having said last week that Moody's upgraded Trinidad and Tobago's outlook from negative
01:31to stable.
01:32When you read the Moody's report, when you read the central bank data pack, what is happening with our public
01:40debt?
01:41The facts are there. Our debt is jumping from in the 70s, 75-76% to in the 80s, 84
01:50-85%.
01:51Attorney General John Jeremy had a direct response regarding the Moody's report as he said the majority of the international
01:58agency's one-year assessment
02:00that led to their downgrade of Trinidad and Tobago last year occurred before the 2025 general election.
02:07After one year in office and after looking at the work of the Minister of Finance, the work of the
02:16government,
02:18Moody's feels comfortable enough to change their...
02:25The government is seeking a supplementation of $2.9 billion to its 2025-2026 budget.
02:34Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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