How many commissioners of affidavits are there in Tobago? What is being done about corrupt police officers? How many people were reported missing between October 1, 2010, and July 31, 2011? These were among the eight questions posed in the Senate last Tuesday, six of them by PNM Senator Fitzgerald Hinds, quite possibly the hardest-working but least successful member of the Upper House-at any rate, on that day.
Question Time is allotted only about 30 minutes at the start of each sitting, and although it mostly consists of prepared answers to previously submitted questions, with no debate, it has its own tricks and techniques. Sometimes the Opposition is just fishing-but sometimes they hope to elicit a particular answer that will embarrass the Government. Numerous scandals have emerged by means of careful questioning. So governments compose equally crafty answers.
One such scandal was the infamous scholarships that the last government awarded through the Community Development Ministry. They came to light after Senator Wade Mark asked questions about them and Minister Marlene McDonald refused to answer, with the lame excuse that it would violate the recipients' privacy. The figures, and the recipients' names, were eventually unearthed by means of the Freedom of Information Act. Never advertised or announced, the scholarships amounted to a whopping $45 million, and once uncovered, the scheme was denounced as a PNM slush fund for friends and relatives.
After that embarrassment, you'd think the PNM would never mention the scholarship fund again, but Senator Hinds boldly raised it on Tuesday. He had-just as Mr Mark had in 2008, and as the askers of parliamentary questions generally do-an ulterior motive. Answering on behalf of the absent line minister, Leader of Government Business Emmanuel George provided the lists of recipients that Mr Hinds wanted. He also offered extra information: the previous government had eventually handed out a total of $57 million in these scholarships.
But the People's Partnership Government had decided no recipient should get more than one scholarship, of no more than $25,000, and their studies must be relevant to the country's needs. Since the Government had continued to award bursaries, Mr Hinds asked, would the Minister agree there was great value in the programme? Mr George knows a trick question when he hears one. He sidestepped it by asking the Senate President whether that qualified as a supplemental question; the ruling was that it didn't, and Mr Hinds' ploy failed.
Poor Mr Hinds was recovering from another fruitless wrangle, with Trade and Industry Minister Stephen Cadiz. He had asked how the Government planned to dispose of the increased number of old cars, now that foreign-used cars up to six years old could be imported. Mr Hinds plainly wanted Mr Cadiz to acknowledge that the Government had created a large new problem, but Mr Cadiz stonewalled, and there was a grumpy exchange.
Next Mr Hinds butted heads with the Minister of National Security over how many people had gone missing during a very specific period-whose significance neither of them explained. The answer was 882, of whom 855 been accounted for, and 27 are still missing. It was good to learn that, contrary to popular belief, hundreds of people are not being trafficked out of the country to parts unknown. But that wasn't what Mr Hinds wanted to know.
Since nearly all of them turned out not to be missing after all, was there "a question about the reporting mechanism?" "We're dealing with missing people," replied the baffled Brig Sandy. The President disallowed further supplemental questions, so Mr Hinds, grumbling that he wasn't getting much help from the honourable minister, asked his next question. How many police stations were being constructed?
Brig Sandy saw what was coming, and took in front. The Government had a new "vision for service delivery," he rumbled. There were to be more police on the streets, not in stations, and more patrols. So no stations had been completed, but eight had been approved for starting this year. Mr Hinds pounced. "Therefore, would the Minister agree that the Government, and this Minister, have done nothing to improve the situation of the police?"
"I must remind you," the Minister shot back, "that they"-the PNM-"did nothing, nothing, nothing, apart from Mayaro...After 2005, no other police station was built." The question about corruption in the police and Defence Force (answer: audits, new systems, a police Professional Standards Bureau) ended in a goalless draw. The final score was Government 5: Hinds 0.
Next the Attorney General apologetically told Independent Senator Dr Victor Wheeler there were only three commissioners of affidavits in Tobago, but the system for appointing them was being streamlined. Dr Wheeler got a polite answer, too, about problematic land-title regularisation in Tobago.
So Mr George had some justification for his pride when he pointed out that the Government continued to answer all questions on time and comprehensively. "Shame!" cried Mr Hinds. But even though the answers aren't always as complete as Mr George made out, the present Government's smugness over answering questions is preferable to the previous one's puerile glee at dodging and deferring them.