Challenges persist for Caribbean offshore centres

Caribbean countries continue to face an uphill battle in shedding the image that their offshore financial sector is a safe haven for wealthy tax dodgers and money launderers who can easily walk through immigration with suitcases full of money.
Suspicious persists particularly from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to blacklist such countries described as tax havens and which are also threatened with tough sanctions including the withdrawal of investment funding by the World Bank or International Monetary Fund.
Last year’s international scandal surrounding 60-year old Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, a naturalised Antiguan accused in the American courts of a US$8 billion Ponzi scheme only served to bring renewed negative attention on offshore centres in the Caribbean.
Given the stigmatisation attached to offshore centres, a joint CARIFORUM-EU conference was recently held on financial services in Antigua to review the current status of the sector in the region, the challenges it faced, assess the demands being made on the regulatory environment and how to move towards correcting it.
Given the importance of the offshore banking to countries in the Caribbean, it was a necessary conference to point the way forward for Caribbean jurisdiction, the fourth largest banking sector in the world, led primarily by Bermuda, the Caymans, the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands.
In Belize which has a GDP of over US$1 billion, the international banking sector maintains deposits in excess of US$250 million.
In Antigua and Barbuda, the offshore financial services sector which comprise 16 international banks and one international trust has a significant multiplier effect on the economy. Some 700 Antiguans are directly employed in the sector with average annual salaries, statutory contributions and rental income amounting to approximately US$30 million.
A recent World Bank report also states that the Caribbean derives 45 percent of its gross domestic product from services.
Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Edwin Carrington spoke at the opening sessions and reminded his audience that in the 1980’s, international financial institutions encouraged revenue-strapped countries in the region to promote international financial services as a mechanism for economic diversification, income and employment generation and growth.
Many countries in the Caribbean, faced with economic decline because of the demise of the banana industry, their main revenue earner or the need to diversify their mono-economy, took the advice and turned to the financial services sector to attract investment, reap some revenues and generate employment.
Even the tiny eastern Caribbean island of St. Kitts and Nevis ventured into financial services and areas of tourism following the closure of its sugar industry in 2005 which provided significant foreign exchange and was a source of employment for its nationals.
It should be noted as well that Caribbean countries are among the most heavily indebted economies in the world with six having a debt that exceed 100 percent of their GDP and St Kitts and Nevis close to hitting the 200 percent mark.
Mr. Carrington pointed out that the success of a number of Caribbean countries in implementing international financial services seems to have attracted more punishment than reward.
Following the OECD 1998 Report on “Harmful Tax Competition: An Emerging Global Issue” Caribbean countries, along with other targeted countries have had to subscribe to the OECD Model Tax Convention by making amendments to their legislation and practices relating to international financial and banking activities and strengthen their network of double taxation treaties, to remove themselves from a blacklist which sought to name, shame and punish those countries that did not comply with the requirements of the OECD.
The goal posts were shifted from time to time, according to Mr. Carrington, as Caribbean jurisdictions were required to show a certain degree of compliance by signing at least twelve Tax Information Exchange Agreements with major capital suppliers.
By July 2010, the vast majority of the CARIFORUM international financial jurisdictions were able to do so.
The in-depth and comprehensive monitoring and peer review, decided by the September 2009 Global Forum Meeting in Mexico, will create further problems for Caribbean jurisdictions, according to the Secretary-General adding that these will continue to have negative implications for the Caribbean.
The stigmatising has also led to a loss of business in the Caribbean as some that have established business in the region are already moving out to other locations.
Port of Spain-based Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), an organisation of thirty states of the Caribbean Basin which have agreed to implement common countermeasures to address the problem of criminal money laundering has also been pushing for the countries on the tax haven list to implement the principles of transparency and to an exchange of information as far back as 2002.
Although there were some bad practices in the past, many member countries have moved to strengthen their regulations to keep with international standards, have robust regimes in terms of anti-money laundering and have been cooperating with their international counterparts.
Barbados which is on the OECD ‘white list’ of countries complying with the global standard for tax co-operation and exchange of information can also assist regional countries in ensuring compliance with international obligations.
Indeed, as Mr. Carrington pointed out, joint actions and strategies and the operation of joint and common institutions provide the most effective means of developing and strengthening the region’s financial services sector.
Some of these institutions include the following the Caribbean Association of Insurance Regulators, the Caribbean Group of Bank Supervisors, the Caribbean Group of Securities Regulators and the CARICOM Committee of Central Bank Governors.
He suggested that together with a ‘Caribbean College of Regulators’ would go a long way in addressing the credibility of the regulatory environment in the Caribbean for Financial Services.

Shaking up CARICOM

Somebody had to be ‘man enough’ as we would say in Trinidad and Tobago to inform the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) group of nations that the twin-island republic was not an ATM machine.

But it took a woman to say to the male-dominated leadership of the Caribbean what Trinbagonians have been saying for numerous years – harsh, brutal and unrefined as it may sound.

This is not to say that Patrick Manning, ousted from office two months ago by Kamla Persad-Bissessar did not have the fortitude to be blunt about the use and distribution of revenues from Trinidad and Tobago.

On this issue, Mr Manning and Mrs. Persad-Bissessar are ideologically poles apart. Whereas Mr. Manning saw himself as a ‘god-father’ type to the financially challenged countries, the current prime minister has set the tone that it does not want this burdensome title.

It’s ludicrous that Trinidad and Tobago should have to shoulder responsibility for the US$40 million needed  for the CARICOM Development Fund when member governments have failed over and again to invest in the fund and help bear the cost of implementing a Caribbean-wide security system.

There has always been quiet rumblings about Trinidad and Tobago money going to Caribbean countries under various funds and development programmes when there was so much that needed to be fixed and put right in the twin-island state.

Trinidad and Tobago has never had a problem giving monetary assistance to the Caribbean and that will continue but under more co-operative regional efforts, according to the signals from Mrs. Persad-Bissessar.

Since the early seventies, Trinidad and Tobago made wealthy by its oil and gas revenues has always provided generous financial assistance to regional countries.

But as Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar noted in her speech to regional leaders in Montego bay two weeks ago, Trinidad and Tobago will have to be more circumspect in how it gives money to the Caribbean in face of dwindling revenues from the energy sector, mainly gas and ensuring that the needs of the people of her country are adequately taken care.

She may not have scored high points with Caribbean leaders on this and already St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has already criticised her, claiming she insulted all those big men –but she has won thunderous support back home.

Keith Rowley, the opposition leader in Trinidad and Tobago and one of the most vitriolic politicians in the country also felt Mrs. Persad-Bissessar insulted Caribbean leaders – she could have softened up her words– and warned that these countries may begin pulling out of doing business with us.

There has always been the argument that Trinidad and Tobago needs to support the Caribbean because it is their largest market for manufactured goods. And no can accuse the twin-island state of not showing that support in many tangible ways.

Jamaica in particular continues to grumble about manufacturers in Trinidad and Tobago out-performing them because they get energy subsidy from their government – and which does not level the playing field for Kingston’s manufacturing sector.

It has been hammered so many times across the waters that manufacturers in Trinidad and Tobago do not get energy subsidy from the government.

In fact the high industrial power rate manufacturers pay actually subsidises the residential power rate so homeowners don’t face high bills.

What manufacturers in Trinidad and Tobago have been doing is investing money into retooling their operations, retrain employees, add new technology and constantly improve their products or diversify products to bring them to internationally competitive standards.

Guyana President Bharrat Jadgeo is correct when he – in other words told the Jamaicans to stop belly-aching and take their grouse to the Caribbean Court of Justice if they felt they were on solid grounds.

Trinidad and Tobago could also be crying down the place from Kingston to Georgetown on how the twin-island and their lone oil company, Petrotrin were at a major disadvantage when all countries in the Caribbean with the exception of Barbados signed the Petrocaribe’s agreement, which allows governments to buy Venezuelan oil and fuel through in-kind payments and finance 40 percent of their bills at 1 percent for 25 years.

Petrotrin – already financially challenged has had to look for new markets outside the Caribbean because they were displaced by Petrocaribe.

It’s a well known fact that Trinidad and Tobago, recognising the financial burdens of the net oil importing countries agreed to suspend the Common External Tariff (CET) which allowed Venezuela to send their shipments to countries in the region without incurring any additional costs.

Recognising that the tensions between the manufacturers need to be eliminated, Mrs Persad-Bissessar, promising to find amicable solutions also invited the business leaders from both sides to become involved in a three-pronged approach to drive innovative improvements, deepen alliance and explore partnerships.

Later this year, trade delegations from Guyana and Jamaica are expected to visit Port of Spain and hopefully, business leaders on all sides can create synergies to not only take advantage of Caribbean markets but those beyond our shores.

Switching gears, there continues to be widespread criticism over the issue of governance in CARICOM and the recent Heads of Government conference in Montego Bay did very little to dispel the notions of the naysayers.

Commentary on the sluggishness and tardiness emerging out of the leadership annual meetings has moved from subtle and restrained to brazen and blunt in recent times – and this year’s was even more callous.

I thought the worst part of the entire conference was yet another agreement for more prime ministers to get together on the way forward for transforming the community into implementing decisions and on the whole issue of governance.

I have said in the past that for one reason or the other, the Caribbean likes to set up committees, then sub-committees, then sub-sub committees until the latter committee has no idea of what’s its mandate.

But seriously one would have thought that given the continued economic crisis that countries in the region are under, leaders would be resolute in self-imposing deadlines to implement programmes under the Caricom Single Market and Economy.

Last year, those very same countries were pleading that they could not fulfil their CSME obligations because of the global economic crisis on their countries.

Clearly, it’s the vicious cycle of inaction by the leadership that has kept the Caribbean under such shaky foundations.

What will be TT’s role in CARICOM?

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar will attend her first Caribbean Community (CARICOM) heads of government summit this weekend as the new leader of the twin-island state and will sit as the lone female around the table of male-dominated prime ministers and presidents of the region.

Fresh out of winning a major electoral victory in the southern republic just over a month ago, the summit in Jamaica’s tourist region of Montego Bay will provide an opportunity for Mrs. Persad-Bissessar to espouse her government’s relationship with the Community and how involved it plans to be in its affairs.

During political campaigning for the elections, Mrs. Persad-Bissessar rarely spoke on the issue of CARICOM or what relations are expected to be with the Community or with individual countries.

Following a meeting with Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo, the first CARICOM leader to visit her, she said that there were several areas of economic and technical cooperation to be explored between Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.

President Jagdeo said Georgetown was looking forward to engaging the new government in Port of Spain on possible areas of collaboration.

What so far has been the signals coming from the new People’s Partnership government?

In its election’s manifesto, the People’s Partnership made its intentions clear that it will re-engage fully with the regional integration process and contribute towards the strengthening of the overall CARICOM framework, including the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).

Very notably, it firmly rejected the “divisive” initiative of the previous prime minister Patrick Manning who was seeking to establish economic and political union between Trinidad and Tobago and several states of the Eastern Caribbean.

Under Mr. Manning’s proposal, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Lucia will seek to achieve economic integration by 2011 and political integration two years later – despite the widerCARICOM grouping which set a 2015 deadline for the formation of a single economy.

According to the People’s Partnership, Trinidad and Tobago will also promote, as much as possible, a common and proactive policy stand among the CARICOM members regarding critical issues such as the “forced returnees” from the United States and the UK, the reconstruction of Haiti, the “Bolivarian Alternative” (ALBA), climate change and sustainable development

In order to strengthen and deepen the relations with CARICOM and its various institutions, Trinidad and Tobago will appoint a special envoy/ambassador to CARICOM.

Quite recently, the government announced that freedom fighter Makandal Daaga was appointed CARICOM Cultural Ambassador Extraordinaire to bridge relations between Trinidad and Tobago and other regional countries.

From a foreign policy perspective, the new government planned to work in concentric circles, beginning with CARICOM and was also seeking to implement existing trade agreements in collaboration with its CARICOM partners.

No doubt Caribbean leaders will also be looking toward Mrs. Persad-Bissessar to see what role Trinidad and Tobago intends to play in the Community.

Historically, Trinidad and Tobago has played an important role in the Community as a political and economic leader mainly because of its abundant resources of oil and natural gas.

Going back to the seventies, Trinidad and Tobago assisted the Caribbean with an oil facility; with loans, grants and has written off hundreds of millions of dollars in debt owed by Guyana to the twin-island state.

Currently, Trinidad and Tobago contributes to the CARICOM Regional Development Fund designed to assist countries particularly in the Eastern Caribbean to develop their capacity to benefit from intra and extra regional trade among others – and the Petroleum Fund which seeks to give CARICOM trading partners financial assistance.

Earlier this year, the then government made an initial contribution of US$1 million  from the CARICOM Petroleum Fund towards relief and recovery efforts in earthquake ravaged Haiti and again contributed an additional US$5 million to the Haiti Earthquake Relief and Reconstruction Account established in the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.

The then government also agreed to make a further US$5 million available to the account on the basis of a further needs assessment.

Trinidad and Tobago also committed US$50 million from the Petroleum Fund into a special facility to assist countries that were affected by the indebted British American Insurance Company (BAICO).

All these have been taking place as Trinidad and Tobago faced the brunt of the impact of the international economic crisis plunging oil and gas prices which heavily impact on the country’s revenues.

In 2009, economic output in Trinidad and Tobago declined by some 3 percent. Central Bank Governor Ewart Williams says the economy is expected to grow to around 2 percent at the end of this year but new Finance Minister Winston Dookeran reports that the economy was more likely to be flat.

Mr.Dookeran also paints a gloomy picture of the economy, saying there’s need for fiscal consolidation to bring expenditure in line with the sharply declining revenues – which could only mean cuts in expenditure or raising taxes.

Before doing any of these, the new government which came into office on an overwhelmingly popular support from the electorate would surely find difficulties in bringing any burden on the population – and may have to look at other areas that would not impact the pockets of its citizens.

Last year, in the face of falling gas and oil revenues and deficit in the budget, the previous Manning administration raised the possibility of cutting or stopping its contribution altogether to the Regional Development Fund but never took any action on it.

Instead, it created the very unpopular Property Tax which would have seen home-owners paying much more money towards the government. The then government was also moving towards creating a single Revenue Authority to ensure compliance with tax laws, minimize leakage in collection and increase efficiency across the board in revenue collection. But to achieve this, it meant about 2,000 government workers losing their jobs.

The new government has already rejected the Property Tax and the Revenue Authority shutting off new sources of revenues.

Given the financial challenges it faces, it’s going to be interesting in the coming months to see how the new Trinidad and Tobago government intends to balance the up-coming 2010 budget and what cuts it intends to make and whether its financial commitment towards CARICOM remains untouched.

June 2010 Business Journal

Full assault on gangs, crime

There are many reasons why Trinidad and Tobago ended up a with a new government in power last week.
As reported in previous columns, there were mounting dissatisfaction in the country over the administration of Patrick Manning.
There were allegations about the mismanagement of public funds, exorbitant spending on high rise buildings and hosting world leaders at two expensive summits last year which ordinary folks felt were a waste of time as it did nothing tangible to improve their lives.
But one of their biggest disappointments was the failure of the former government with all the billions of dollars at their disposal to tackle the  maniacal criminal gangs in the country which are responsible for the runaway crime rate.
The former Manning government boasted of having a air ship or a blimp, 360 degree radar system to survey the coast for illegal drug traffickers, more helicopters and speed boats, more police vehicles on the roads and eye-in-the -sky cameras, yet all these have failed to make a dent on criminal activities particularly murders – and adding up to zero in the eyes of the  crime-scarred public.
How then can a government convince the people that it should be voted back into office and even had the impudence to have an election campaign theme of a ‘caring government’ when blood continues to flow in the streets.
During the five weeks of campaigning in the run up to the elections, billboards sprung up along highways and bi-ways reminding potential voters about the 3,000 plus murders that took place over the last seven years under the Manning administration.
The United National Congress led coalition naturally made crime and security one of their main platform issues, tugging at the heartstrings of a population who have moved from being a very jovial, carefree people, hanging out orliming as we call it, at all hours of the night to becoming suspicious of every strange person they encounter.
The new government of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has promised a full assault on crime and return the country to a lawful state where people can go about their business without having to look over their shoulders all the time.
The government knows that if crime and gang violence is not curbed, we can end up like Jamaica which is dubbed one of the most violent countries in the world, considering the size of their population and their skyrocketing murder rate.
The lawlessness currently unleashing in Jamaica also has lessons for all countries in our region to focus on eradicating gangs before they assume power even greater than that of a prime minister.
It’s well documented that the dons or gang leaders in Jamaica have been allowed to flourish as far back as the 1960s and were used by the two main rival political parties to enforce their political agendas and drive fear and terror in the hearts of their opponents.
Over the last week, security forces in Jamaica have been battling a well-armed group of men intent on blocking the execution of a warrant for the arrest of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke who is wanted in the United States on drug- and gun-trafficking charges.
The death count has been put at over 70 but former prime minister  Edward Seaga and residents claim the figure is more than 100.
An ABC newscast last week quoted a U.S. government report which refers to Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding who was attempting to block the extradition as a “criminal affiliate” of Coke.
US authorities also claim that Mr. Golding and other senior Jamaican officials have been electronically intercepted talking to Coke in his fortified hideout.
Gangs are a worldwide phenomenon with millions of members who claim maginalisation and being outcast of the government system.
In the United States, there are about 20,000 violent street gangs, motorcycle gangs, and prison gangs with approximately 1 million members who are criminally active, according to the FBI.
Many are sophisticated and well organized; all use violence to control neighborhoods and boost their illegal money-making activities, which include drug trafficking, robbery, theft, fraud, extortion, prostitution rings, and gun trafficking.
In Jamaica,  security official point to 200 gangs who are responsible for committing 80 per cent of the island’s crimes.
Trinidad police estimate that there are 81 gangs operating in this country with 10 – 50 members with an average age between 14 and 44 years.
Guyana also experienced the bloody rampage of armed criminal gangs in 2008 which resulted in multiple killings in two separate event.
Smaller islands in the Caribbean are not spared by criminal gangs. In tiny St. Kitts with a population of 46,000, the government reports a pattern of criminal gangs and increase in the murder rate.
In Central America, there are 300,000 gang members, some who have killed as many as 10 people by the time they reach age 15.
New Trinbagonian Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar has appointed retired Brigadier John Sandy to head the Ministry of National Security and to take on the difficult task of shutting down criminal activities in the country.
Apart from the Attorney General’s office and the Legal Affairs Ministry to boost support, she created a Justice Ministry headed by former High Court judge Herbert Volney to help tackle the criminal element in the country through the legal system.
Her multi-pronged approach also including cleaning up the police service to ensure its effectiveness in the fight against crime. Police officers who sit behind desks doing administrative work will be put on patrol duties on the streets.
There’s now a clear squaring off between the new government in Port of Spain and the criminal element in the country.
Unlike the previous government which facilitated a meeting with gang leaders describing them as community leaders, this new government has given the clearest signal that the criminal element in the country is an enemy of the state. They will not be embraced nor coddled.

Leaving Copenhagen behind

From all intents and purpose, negotiators at the latest round of climate change talks in Bonn over the last two weeks seem determined to put behind the chaos and disappointment that emerged from last December’s Copenhagen summit and look towards the Cancun December meeting with some sense of hope.

Although it’s quite unlikely that the summit in the Caribbean tourist resort of Mexico will conclude with a legally binding treaty, negotiators want to avoid a repeat of Copenhagen where leaders, failing to reach consensus on the fundamental issues that will form the substance of a legally binding international agreement settled for an accord that fell far short of its stated goals.

Mexico’s Climate Change Ambassador to the United Nations Luis Alfonso de Alba perhaps sensing that a comprehensive agreement may not be reached because of lagging and unresolved issues in the negotiating text suggested that countries can go forward with adopting some decisions that can be legally binding while more steps can be built at subsequent meetings.

But in a sharp retort Ambassador Collin Beck, Vice-Chair of the Alliance for Small Island States (AOSIS) described it as “disturbing” that a country can begin making pronouncements before giving the negotiating process a chance.

The AOSIS and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are holding out hope for a comprehensive agreement from Cancun but many other countries are not under any such illusion given the complex unresolved issues.

Reaching agreement is fundamental and important.

According to UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, mankind has already added enough greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to raise temperatures to a dangerous level and this is already leading to increased incidences of drought, heat waves and heavy storms.

The purpose of an ambitious and effective international climate change deal is to avoid catastrophic climate change and to help the most vulnerable countries adapt.

The world, according to the UNFCCC has only a very narrow window of opportunity to undertake a first dramatic shift towards a low carbon society and to prevent the worst scenarios of scientists from coming true.

Although there are wide and varying views about the expectations and outcomes from Cancun, the atmosphere at Bonn is far friendlier than what existed in Copenhagen.

Many of the negotiators including China’s Special Representative for Climate Change, Ambassador Qintai Yu and Lawrence Graff, Chief Negotiator of the European Commission felt rebuilding and restoring trust and confidence lost in Copenhagen was essential in Bonn.

Ambassador Yi told journalists that prior to the Copenhagen talks, some countries departed from the path of cooperation and dialogue and resorted to coercion and pressure.

And while countries will always differ on issues, it should not deter the negotiations from expanding into areas of consensus and strengthening the basis for future cooperation in fighting climate change.

But it has not been all smooth sailing in Bonn.

Island nations experienced a major setback when AOSIS failed to get support for the climate change secretariat to prepare a technical paper on the options for limiting global average temperature increase to below 1.5 degree Celsius and 2 degree Celsius.

Saudi Arabia who led the opposition suggested cynically that vulnerable countries can use Google if they want more knowledge about the scientific findings relating to their survival!

We all remember the 1.5 degree Celsius campaign the Caribbean and other regions of the world waged prior to Copenhagen for mitigating the effects of climate change.

Carlos Fuller, Deputy Chairman of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) points to historical data already showing a 1 degree rise in temperature in the Caribbean.

Climate change impact, he told me on the sidelines of the Bonn meeting, is already occurring in the Caribbean and referred to the bleaching of corals, powerful and damaging hurricanes, reduced annual rainfalls and devastating flooding when it rains.

The biggest shocker for developing countries is what many are calling the imbalance of the new draft text document issued Friday which omitted many important points contained in the old text and which seems to undermine the Kyoto Protocol.

Developing countries and many non-governmental groups accuse the US, Japan and Russia of railroading the negotiations by rejecting the need for binding emission cuts which could lead to climate catastrophe on millions of people in the developing countries.

According to WWF International, the new negotiating text could put delegates attending the next two rounds of climate change talks in August and October in a position to turn trust into traction in Mexico.

It may be wise for countries to reflect on the parting words of out-going Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Yvo de Boer who cautioned that the world cannot afford to postpone more stringent action much longer to halt the increase of global greenhouse gas emissions in the next ten years.

The 2 degree world is in danger and as a result the door to a 1.5 degree world is rapidly closing.

Using a football analogy to emphasize the urgency of reaching consensus on climate change issues including global greenhouse gas at the December Cancun summit, he said the world received a yellow card in Copenhagen.

If countries fail to deliver in Cancun, they may be handed a red card from the referee.

The referee being the millions of poor and vulnerable people who face a real threat by climate change.

Back to the election hustings

Over the last two weeks, Trinidad and Tobago experienced several unexpected surprises.
First, prime minister Patrick Manning put the country on alert that a snap general elections was imminent and gave his ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) little notice to begin the screening of candidates.
Three days ago, although not announcing the date for general elections, Mr. Manning advised the President to dissolve the Parliament, paving the way for fresh polls more than two years before they were constitutionally due.
No reason has been put forward by Mr. Manning on why he has chosen to take the ruling party to a snap general elections coming midway in the five-year term of his administration but surely it has to do with the apparent public pressure his government has been facing from all corners of the country.
It cannot be ignored too that calling for the dissolution of Parliament scuttled an anticipated no-confidence motion by the opposition United National Congress (UNC) against him.
Although the motion was bound to fail, given the PNM’s majority in the House of Representatives, UNC’s leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her team of speakers were well prepared to enumerate a long list of transgressions against Mr. Manning and the Government he leads.
They would have put into the Parliamentary Hansard records the scandalous findings of a commission of inquiry into the construction sector which found mass over-spending, suspicious contractual dealings, the omnipotent powers and the abuse of powers by the former head of a state agency, Calder Hart and the recommendation for a number of criminal probes.
Now, the UNC plans to take it to the political campaign which kicks off tomorrow.
Canada-born Mr.Hart, now a naturalized citizen of Trinidad and Tobago resigned from his high-powered job at the state-agency, UDECOTT (Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago) and from other State Boards he headed early last month after he was summoned to a meeting with Mr. Manning.
A day before his conversation with Mr. Hart, the Prime Minister met with his Attorney General John Jeremie who indicated that Mr. Hart may have a case to answer regarding an apparent family link between Hart’s family and a Malaysia based company which was awarded US$136 million to construct a government building.
Mr. Manning still does not find it inappropriate to meet with Mr. Hart who according to the AG seems to have a case to answer – nor has he disclosed the nature of the conversation with the controversial Mr. Hart.
A day after meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr. Hart whose combined salary and perks were an outrageous US$1 million plus annually up to 2006 left the country with his family but failed to keep his commitment to return home by the end of last month.
Mr. Manning has also been facing mounting protest and criticism over his spending of millions of dollars on the construction of high rise buildings in the capital, some which remain unoccupied, US$40 million to construct and furnish a palatial prime minister’s residence and diplomatic centre and over US$120 million to host the Fifth Summit of the Americas and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting last year.
Added to this, the unanswered questions about who hired Shanghai Construction as the contractor for the construction of an imposing cathedral  on state lands given to the Lighthouse of the Lord Jesus Christ Church headed by Reverend Juliana Pena, whom the local media has described as Mr. Manning’s personal Prophetess.
Shanghai came to work in Trinidad based on a government-to-government agreement to construct a number of buildings.
There’s also a criminal probe into an alleged land deal between Mr. Manning and the former leader of the 1990 insurrection, Yasin Abu Bakr; a runaway crime situation and many other ills that the public has expressed their concerns over.
But this is not yet a perfect political storm which creates the conditions for the UNC and other opposition forces to start claiming automatic victory.
Mr. Manning, the shrewd politician that he is, may have decided to call a snap election in the hope of catching the UNC and other opposition parties unprepared to form a unified team in time for the polls.
The UNC itself has not fully settled its internal problems with senior members including the founder Basdeo Panday not fully embracing Mrs. Persad-Bissessar since her overwhelming 12-1 defeat of him for the leadership position in the party polls last January.
There’s also the question of how an accommodation of sorts will be formed between the UNC which won 16 seats in the 2007 general elections and the splinter party, the Congress Of the People (COP) which although not winning a single seat commanded over 140,000 votes.
COP supporters include disenchanted former UNC members and floating voters, who are particularly crucial to the outcome of the very important marginal seats in  the elections that are normally divided along racial lines.
The UNC and the COP would also have to convince the electorate that their unity team is not a marriage of convenience but can survive the test of time and whatever dispute that inevitably will arise.
The unified forces will also have to demonstrate to the electorate that they have workable ideas and proposals on governing the country fairly and along equitable lines.
Over the last year or so since Mr. Manning’s fortunes began its free-fall, the population’s concerns have evolved around what they see as wasteful spending on multi-story buildings; the lavish hosting of summits; the defence of public officials suspected of corrupt dealings; arrogance of public officials and questionable deals.
Prime Minister Manning and members of his party have been widely criticized by callers to radio talk programmes and from the public’s written feedback to articles on the online newspapers.
They have been booed and heckled and at least one person has physically restrained Mr. Manning from entering his yard.
What people want – and hope which ever party forms the next government would channel revenues from the energy sector into fixing their roads, having an adequate supply of water on a daily basis, proper schools for their children, improved beds and improved service at hospitals, increased in grants for the elderly and the differently-abled to name a few of their basic needs and expectations.
Ultimately, this is why people vote for political parties so their lives can be improved.
But watching billions pass through the country “like a dose of salts” – to paraphrase Jamaica’s now deceased Prime Minister Michael Manley about Trinidad’s wealth from the seventies oil boom – and not getting their just dues was the tipping point for them.