217 CABINET RECUSALS BY YOUNG, AL RAWI

STUART Young and Faris Al Rawi recused themselves from Cabinet discussions a total of 217 times between 2015 and 2024.

Young stepped aside from discussing Cabinet Notes on 134 occasions.

Al Rawi left the room 83 times.

Ministers are mandated to excuse themselves from Cabinet business over conflicts of interest.

Incoming Prime Minister Young’s brother Angus is a senior executive of NCB Merchant Bank (Trinidad and Tobago) Ltd., formerly NCB Global Finance Ltd.

The bank, part of Caricom’s second largest indigenous financial institution with assets worth about TT $100 billion, has done business with the T&T Government.

Young’s father, Richard, a former Managing Director of Scotiabank, is Chairman of International Financial Centre.

In the past when there was focus on Young’s recusals, he said he “steadfastly” rejected “the continued attempts to associate me (and, by extension, my family) with any wrongdoing…”

Al Rawi and his immediate family are paid some $20 million a year as landlords to the State for four city buildings.

That sum is almost 10 per cent of the value of all buildings rented by the Government.

In the past, the Government defended Young and Al Rawi on the issue of recusals.

But Professor Selwyn Cudjoe has expressed a popular view in querying how these top government decision-makers could represent the interests of common people.

Statistics confirm that over the past decade, the wealth gap has widened, with certain corporations earning larger profits while thousands of small businesses closed and there is increased poverty.

Four banks reported a historic total of $4.78 billion profit in 2024, a 12.5 per cent increase from the previous year.