The Tobago Council of the People's National Movement (PNM) is calling for funding for the Cepep programme "as a matter of urgency."The council said it "views with concern the decision by the Government to terminate the contracts of CEPEP contractors and thus jeopardise the livelihood of hundreds of workers."The council is also calling on the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) to ensure that the programme receives funding.Expressing alarm that "the Government was placing vulnerable citizens on the breadline," the council called on the Government to desist from dismantling the programme."After making election promises, not only to guarantee continued employment to all the workers, but to enhance their wages and terms and conditions of work, the PP Government is now placing some of the country's most vulnerable citizens on the breadline," the council said in a news release.
"These actions must be viewed in light of the Government's continued refusal to allocate any funding to the Tobago House of Assembly for the programme," the release said.The council said it was only because the assembly reallocated funds, that all workers were not sent home.It is calling on the TOP and its colleagues in the People's Partnership Government to ensure that the funding for the programme in Tobago be transmitted to the Assembly, as a matter of urgency.The council urged the Government to desist from actions "which could fuel the widely held view that its major priority is to dismantle the present programme and replace it by a new model which could seriously disadvantage the present cadre of workers."