MULTI-MILLION-DOLLAR CORRUPTION WILD GOOSE CHASE

THIS is a Cabinet Note on granting $66.3 million of taxpayer funds to three British firms to urgently hunt down corrupt figures.

The matter went to Cabinet on July 24, 2020.

But no arrests have been made with respect to “secret and classified information regarding plans to undermine the rule of law, good governance, and national security through criminal and corrupt activities.”

This funding is separate from the annual budgetary allocations to the police service, which has agencies, professionals and strategic connections to probe white-collar crime.

The investigations, described in the Cabinet Note as “high profile,” were initiated by Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, who took the matter to Cabinet and asked the Ministries of Finance and National Security “to identify funds to meet the expenditure.”

A year ago, Rowley told a political audience the Cabinet had approved US $18 million to fight white-collar crime.

It is not known whether the TT $66.3 million (just under US $10 million) was part of the US $18 million.

Rowley has hotly denied allegations that the parliamentary opposition is being persecuted, claiming they are a “pistoratic lie.”

The opposition claims the Government has politically polluted investigations and is targeting certain prominent figures.

The companies sharing the large allocations are Edmonds, Marshall McMahon Ltd., Open Text UK Ltd., and PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services Ltd.

The contracts were for retroactive payments since they covered the period April 2010 to June 2020.

Edmonds, Marshall, McMahon Ltd., was granted a deal for a further one year, beginning July 1, 2020.

So, the investigating periods have expired, and no one has been hauled to justice.

There could be justifiable speculation that the probe was an abortive, futile mission, an unproductive assignment – a wild goose chase.

While the huge sum was being spent, the police service was denied essential resources, including vehicles, CCTV cameras, and optimal manpower.

Gary Griffith, who was police chief during the period, publicly groused that the service was “starved of resources.”

The crime spree is worsening, with unchecked murders, home invasions, assaults, and robberies of school children, doubles vendors, and crab catchers.

More than that, the large spending has taken place in the midst of the worst national humanitarian crisis since the mid-1980s.

The Government’s social welfare programme is not making a dent in the plague of poverty, in which more than a third of citizens are living under the nominal destitution threshold.

One in five workers is unemployed, 85 per cent of nationals live pay cheque-to pay cheque, alms begging on the streets has increased, and there is painful evidence of hardship everywhere.

The Rowley administration has shown little zeal in confronting these life-and-death issues, and the accompanying malnourishment, school drop-outs, elderly suffering, and healthcare emergencies.

But the Prime Minister is dogmatic – even fanatical – on his single-minded mission.

He has said: “We are pursuing white-collar crime; the price at the end is not the matter.”

And: “We will follow them, even until the ends of the earth. We will not be distracted.”

In the meantime, a little, old lady was begging at the traffic lights this morning for “a lil change to buy mih chirren a meal.”