The re­cent de­vel­op­ments con­cern­ing the PURE pro­gramme are very cu­ri­ous and seem to add sub­stance to the talk that there is a ca­bal in the Cab­i­net, made up of a group that is close to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, that is on a cam­paign to boot Jack Warn­er out of the Gov­ern­ment. It is not so strange that af­ter Cab­i­net dis­cussed and ap­proved the em­ploy­ment con­tracts for em­ploy­ees of the unit that the de­ci­sion was re­scind­ed. What is cu­ri­ous, how­ev­er, is that it was done with­out even the cour­tesy of in­form­ing the line min­is­ter, let alone hav­ing con­sul­ta­tions with him.

Then, out of the blue, in an ef­fort to cov­er up the shab­by trail, now comes al­le­ga­tions of "ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties" at PURE! Were these al­leged ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties not raised be­fore, most of all, when the Cab­i­net Note was be­ing dis­cussed? And look at the tim­ing. The UNC in­ter­nal elec­tions are due in less than two months. There is talk on the ground that the ca­bal is try­ing to rig the elec­tions in four con­stituen­cies in the south­land to en­sure that Warn­er los­es his post as par­ty chair­man. And this is just the lat­est "shot" against Warn­er since his dis­agree­ment with the blue-eyed Chair­man of CAL George Nicholas III that has cul­mi­nat­ed with the split­ting of his min­istry and strip­ping him of all but two State Boards.

Do not for­get that im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter the Min­istry of Trans­port was formed, al­le­ga­tions arose from the Port Au­thor­i­ty and the Air­ports Au­thor­i­ty that the board was be­ing forced to fire its lawyers and hire friends of the min­is­ter. Is this why they want to take PURE away from Warn­er? To give the work to their friends. That would be the lagniappe since the oth­er ob­jec­tives are to cut Warn­er's per­for­mance and de­liv­ery record and take wind out of his sail ahead of the UNC In­ter­nal Elec­tions. It is cu­ri­ous that even be­fore the au­dit can be done on PURE, the Prime Min­is­ter is al­ready mak­ing pub­lic state­ments that there are "ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties" in PURE and that the pro­gramme needs to be re­struc­tured.

These state­ments ought to be in­formed by the Cen­tral Au­dit Com­mit­tee find­ings. They should not be made dur­ing the au­dit pe­ri­od and be­fore the au­dit re­port is even writ­ten. So, the au­dit will be a farce-a for­mal­i­ty. The PM has al­ready reached her con­clu­sion on the mat­ter. It does not mat­ter that her state­ments-which are pre­ma­ture and as such base­less un­til it is sup­port­ed by the Cen­tral Au­dit re­port-have taint­ed the rep­u­ta­tion of the 400-plus em­ploy­ees of PURE who were seen day and night in­spect­ing the works on the Uri­ah But­ler High­way, lit­er­al­ly burn­ing the mid­night oil so that the PP could claim "per­for­mance" and "de­liv­ery." They are just col­lat­er­al dam­age in the bid to "get Jack." Madam Prime Min­is­ter, you and your ca­bal are fool­ing no one. We, the pub­lic, are watch­ing and tak­ing note.

Carmeli­ta Mo­hammed

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