Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley does not agree with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's plan for amended legislation to deal with white-collar crime. Persad-Bissessar, who announced the initiative during a news briefing at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann's on Tuesday, said the legislation would provide for establishment of an Anti-Corruption Commission and would introduce a new offence called unjust enrichment.
Rowley, however, said there was no need for such legislation. "The Prime Minister is coming across as somebody who just churns out words for the sake of the occasion and not thinking things through," he said. "It is becoming more and more difficult to listen to what she has to say," he told reporters during an interview outside the Red House on Wednesday. Rowley described Persad-Bissessar as the leader of the Government's public relations campaign, and said: "We have so many anti-corruption laws in this country.
"When last did you hear anybody being charged for corruption in this country?" he asked. "So clearly it is not a shortage of laws."
He said passage of new laws would not solve the problem and there was need for "institutional strengthening and governance by behaviour." Rowley said he was not aware of any white-collar or black-collar crime laws. Rowley added that Persad-Bissessar was "ignoring" the report of the Uff Commission of Enquiry into the Construction Sector and Udecott but seeking to bring new laws to deal with corruption matters. "She has to be a joker," he said.
Responding to questions about the state of industrial relations in T&T, Rowley said: "The Government doesn't seem to be in charge of anything in this country and they don't come across as knowing what to do on any matter. "It's not what you do but how you do it that's troubling us right now." Rowley claimed the People's Partnership Government had "not found its place yet and it feels that public relations gimmickry will get us through our difficulties."