Michelle Loubon

Pres­i­dent of the All Trinidad Gen­er­al Work­ers Trade Union Rudy In­dars­ingh says the Gov­ern­ment should re­frain from pri­vatis­ing the rev­enue col­lec­tion agen­cies. "If they are col­lect­ing rev­enue, it is the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the cen­tral gov­ern­ment not to pri­va­tise," In­dars­ingh said yes­ter­day. "They are re­spon­si­ble for all the rev­enues, whether it is lo­cal gov­ern­ment or ed­u­ca­tion. They col­lect about $40 bil­lion per year. If they get away with it, they would pri­va­tise the en­tire Pub­lic Ser­vice." The Gov­ern­ment is propos­ing the es­tab­lish­ment of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty (TTRA)–a new en­ti­ty in­tend­ed for the col­lec­tion of rev­enue by the State. In­dars­ingh, who is al­so the sec­ond vice- pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre, spoke dur­ing a mid­day protest which cul­mi­nat­ed at Wood­ford Square, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.

Among those lead­ing the protest were PSA em­ploy­ees, Cus­toms and Ex­cise, Board of In­land Rev­enue, OW­TU, TTUTA and Fi­tun. About 2,000 work­ers clutched plac­ards and di­rect­ed barbs at Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning and his Fi­nance Min­is­ter Karen Tesheira. Mak­ing their way past the Eter­nal Flame, pro­test­ers made the cir­cum­fer­ence of the Par­lia­ment build­ing where de­bates were in progress. He al­so said the work­ers were protest­ing a pol­i­cy which could lead to al­most 2,700 work­ers be­ing sent home. In­dars­ingh al­so ques­tioned the in­de­pen­dence of the pro­posed TTRA. "You are talk­ing about a gov­ern­ment au­thor­i­ty that would over­see the col­lec­tion...The in­de­pen­dence of the in­sti­tu­tion may be com­pro­mised," he said.

"The chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of the en­ti­ty would be made ac­count­able to the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance (Karen Tesheira) or who­ev­er. "At the end of the day, it is telling me the politi­ci­sa­tion of the Pub­lic Ser­vice is at stake." Pre­vi­ous­ly, the in­de­pen­dence of the Pub­lic Ser­vice was guar­an­teed through checks and bal­ances, es­tab­lished by the Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­mis­sion, he said. "If a gov­ern­ment is vot­ed out of of­fice, what would be­come of the per­sons who would have got ap­point­ments," In­dars­ingh said. "We have to avoid the politi­ci­sa­tion of the Pub­lic Ser­vice and re­main in­de­pen­dent through the checks and bal­ances of of the Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­mis­sion. "Who is go­ing to set the terms and con­di­tions in the con­tem­plat­ed en­ti­ty?" he asked. He al­so ques­tioned whether there would be room for unionised terms and con­di­tions of em­ploy­ment and whether col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing would be fa­cil­i­tat­ed by the rev­enue au­thor­i­ty.