Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has doubled down on her criticism of CARICOM as she accused the body of hiding a “corrupt backroom operation that rots the organization”.
In a Facebook post today, Mrs Persad-Bissessar criticizes St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew of seeking to dismiss the issues raised by Trinidad and Tobago regarding the reappointment of General Secretary Carla Barnett.
Sharing a screenshot of a WhatsApp group chat, she said a recent statement by Mr Barrow did not address a message which states the retreat where Ms Barnett was reappointed was to be “Heads only”.
She also accused other CARICOM members of being complicit saying, “Yet to date, not a single member of the CARICOM Secretariat or CARICOM Foreign Minister who is a participant of that WhatsApp group show the decency, honesty or courage to acknowledge that Minister Sobers is being truthful. Instead they have all contributed to the dishonesty and malignment by their deliberate and disgraceful silence to smearing the reputation of Minister Sean Sobers.”
“The leadership at CARICOM particularly at the Secretariat is dysfunctional, dishonest and incompetent. This is what happens when instead of appointing competent technocrats to run the organization, friends, party hacks, relatives of politicians and affiliates of regional sister parties are dumped into managerial positions to maintain the old boys club order,” she added.
Mrs Persad-Bissessar insisted that CARICOM is no longer an inclusive body, with its operations instead frequently hijacked to promote and assist aligned sister political parties to remain in office.
She went on to state, “I continue to await the documentation that I have requested in my letter to the Chairman. Surely there must be time-stamped minutes, performance appraisals etc. Even village councils and sports clubs document their meetings far less an organization over half a century old.”
She also clarified that Trinidad and Tobago will not exit CARICOM: “We helped build this organization and will be a part of fixing it to benefit ALL the people of CARICOM. Therefore this matter will continue to be ruthlessly and relentlessly publicly escalated and prosecuted until persons are held accountable for their odious actions and proper reforms are made to the organization to ensure fairness, accountability, effective management and non interference in the domestic politics of CARICOM members.”
