Contractors involved in the $70 million upgrade of the Moruga Road, Indian Walk, are being extorted by criminals.
The revelation was made yesterday by Moruga/Tableland MP Dr Lovell Francis as he delivered his contribution to the Whistleblower Protection Bill in Parliament.
Francis admitted that corruption exists at all levels in society stating that the bill, when passed, will have a fundamental impact on the lives of all citizens to do the right thing.
“If we keep doing things as we are doing. If we remain as we are commonly known under the tenure of the previous regime as ah eat ah food people. If we continue as you pull the string for me people, this nation has no future.”
Francis, a Minister in the Ministry of Education, held the view that T&T’s culture of corruption, tied to rising criminality, will drown us all.
He first spoke about being induced by one of his constituents whose property had land slippage and came to him seeking help.
“She comes to me and says if you do this for me I will pay you X amount of money,” Francis recalled.
While Francis said the offer of inducement could have triggered a number of factors—one being that she had lost all faith in the system.
“The only end result of that is chaos. I took the time to explain to her that she ought not to be offering any kind of inducement to me and the matter ended there and the problem was solved.”
Francis spoke about another incident involving a male constituent who was embroiled in a land dispute with a neighbour and wanted help.
“He said to me he would give me an inducement if I assist him in getting the land. Then he hits me this sweet eye...wink, wink wink,” Francis said.
Francis said he however solved that problem in a different way.
He said there was one matter before him involving the $70 million upgrade of the Moruga Road.
“There is a circumstance, where we have, what I would call petty gangsters in the community. What they have done....they have gone systematically to every contractor working on the project. They have targeted every single contractor, particularly those not from the community.”
Francis said criminals have crafted a way to meet the contractors before they arrive on site.
While law enforcement has countered their threats, Francis said the contractors and its workers are so intimidated and afraid to say they are being extorted, threatened and equipment damaged that they remain silent.
He said some people believe it was more cost effective and easier to work with criminal elements in their community than do what is right.
“We have people who have waited for a long time for specific improvements that are seeing the investment of the State being partly stolen in front of their eyes and they are so intimidated they are afraid to stand forward and say something. Without that kind of intervention, this kind of activity that is happening in my constituency and other constituencies will continue,” he said.