Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 18/Jan 03:19

WIGUT will never learn

THE EDITOR: I am getting sick and tired of both WIGUT and the UWI Guild of Students salivating over each other's misery. The problem here is the government – the PNM. WIGUT withholding exam grades is a stale strategy, Minister Imbert and Minister Gadsby-Dolly will gladly have them both playing see-saw for the whole academic year. Take the protest to the government, WIGUT and the UWI Guild of Students, we have enough manpower to form a wall around parliament and Balisier House to prevent them from leaving until they give the lecturers an increase in wages. Not a 2 per cent, a 4 per cent or even 7 per cent. A proper 12 per cent increase. What is the status of the partnership between the UWI and the Ministry of Public Administration? Was that another election gimmick or bait to smother the flames from Minister West? Regardless, cancel it, or make the government pay for it, or pay more for it. Protest outside the minister's property on Picton Street, protest outside PNM meetings, protest outside government meetings, stop having these useless Eric Williams Memorial Lectures, invite PNM members to graduation events and functions and when they arrive, do not allow them inside, don't invite them in at all! Everything is a burden on the taxpayer, the subsidies are a burden, the state could never afford anything for the public despite it being their public purse. When will it not be a burden, when TTRA comes on stream in March, when the Dragon farts in 2027? I am calling upon the gatekeeper of the public purse (self-appointed Reginald Armour) to locate the $2.5 billion identified in the auditor general's report, which millions were wasted to pursue a losing case all the way up to the Privy Council. In addition, economist Marla Dukaran has identified a similar amount, 2.5 billion USD (in a period of forex shortage) missing from the national accounts each year, for the last ten years, which Terrence Farrell says is a figment of her imagination. Put together, these errors and omissions can bail us out of the hole that we are in right now. So it is disingenuous for Imbert to introduce to the Parliament a figure of $701 million for settlement of WIGUT demands, calculated at a rate of 24 per cent, simply because no one expects a full settlement of the 24 per cent which will be negotiated substantially downwards to anywhere between 5 and 7 per cent according to what the Industrial Court will probably award. Don't try that mischief Mr Minister. KENDELL KARAN Chaguanas The post WIGUT will never learn appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.