Minister of Finance and the Economy vs. Afra Raymond – Keith Rowley Protecting Persad-Bissessar and CL Financial Group
Afra Raymond Citizen Advocate
BU’s read of the following is simple, the political class is the same everywhere, they are wont to protect their own. What is interesting in this case is that transparency laws are on the statute books in Trinidad and Tobago. Why would the recently installed Rowley PNM government not want to be transparent about how public funds used to bailout CL Financial are accounted for? The following is a note shared by the Indefatigable public advocate Afra Raymond. We continue to wish him well.
The Ministry of Finance & the Economy has today formally advised the Appeal Court of its intention to proceed with their appeal against the High Court ruling of 22nd July 2015 which ordered publication of the requested details of the CL Financial bailout –
- the audited accounts of the CL Financial group;
- the formal presentation to the Independent Senators in September 2011 on the bailout and;
- the details of the payees – i.e. the names of those who received payments.
This is an unprecedented and huge expenditure of Public Money exceeding $20 Billion, yet it seems that we remain bound by the detrimental ‘Code of Silence‘ in our country. Having had the Ten Commandments drummed into us as youths, it now appears that the Eleventh Commandment is to be part of our adult learning – ‘Thou shalt not be found out‘.
This matter will be expedited and I will continue my efforts to obtain all the details of all the payments in this huge expenditure of Public Money.
Barbados Underground 
From a T&T chat room:
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More money to steal. This dude was calling Kamla corrupt every day, until he himself got elected. …fraud.
He should try to protect Jack too.
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In most Caribbean islands — Antigua, Grenada and Haiti immediately come to kind — there is no respite from “corruption” because all the major players are hopelessly lacking in decency and integrity. But that cannot be the fault of individual politicians.It is the nature of the entire culture, which is to say it is the ordinary voters who create and reproduce the political squalor so many people complain about. Look no further than yourselves.
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Well said Chad. We elect them and believe by so doing we make them immune to wrong doing.
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