Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar defended Oropouche East MP Dr. Roodal Moonilal during Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley’s news conference on February 14, 2024, claiming that the new corruption allegations against him in the EMBD court case are “fabricated” and part of a racist campaign to win the general election by accusing “all them Indians” as thieves.
In a speech to the country, especially East Indians, the prime minister criticized Persad-Bissessar and said, “You have nothing to fear from the rest of the population. The law will determine who is police and who is thief. This is a particularly offensive comment by Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar”.
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He claimed that this issue is unrelated to the People’s National Movement (PNM) or the elections, in contrast to Persad-Bisses-sar’s assertions during a press conference held at Whitehall in Port of Spain.
He chastised Persad-Bissessar and Moonilal for trying to frame this as a PNM issue after earlier attempts to have the case dismissed had been unsuccessful.
He pointed out that today’s events are related to the lawsuit and have nothing to do with the PNM, as EMBD brought the matter to court in April 2017 on behalf of taxpayers.
The Prime Minister claimed that he had planned to take a plane to Tobago to spend the weekend there but was unable to do so until he replied to the front-page Express headline, “Racist Election Plot,” which said that Persad-Bissessar was representing Moonilal in the EMBD case. He claimed that this was PNM propaganda and part of a racist campaign strategy to win the general election, claiming that “all them Indian is thief.”
Persad-Bissessar made this statement to reporters in response to questions on new accusations of financial impropriety and corruption made by the EMBD in a civil lawsuit against Moonilal and a group of contractors.
Moonilal referred to the most recent accusations as “cock and bull.”
Rowley clarified that he has no intention of engaging in sub judice or attempting to “try” the issue in public, claiming that he was unaware of the court matter that occurred on February 11, 2025.
He did, however, state that he must supply “certain facts” concerning the Express headline.
After reading the remarks made by Moonilal and Persad-Bissessar, Rowley said, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a very serious matter because who are these two people who can so flippantly and hopefully dismiss court proceedings in the following way?”
The Prime Minister went on to give specifics and timings on the legal action that EMBD took during Persad-Bissessar’s administration and the granting of multimillion-dollar contracts by EMBD.
Rowley mentioned that on June 17, 2015, Parliament was dissolved during Persad-Bissessar’s time as prime minister, and an election was conducted on September 7, 2015.
He showed data from Cabinet minutes indicating even after Parliament was dissolved, millions of contracts were given out.
According to him, a Cabinet note was introduced in July 2015 asking First Citizens Bank (FCB) for approval of $400 million for EMBD to renovate and develop ten existing old Caroni auxiliary bypass routes.
According to Rowley, the UNC lost the 2015 election, and EMBD was hit with demands for enormous sums of money related to these works under a new board after his administration seized power.
He said that the new EMBD board filed a lawsuit because they had good reason to be alarmed by these payment requests.
He brought attention to the millions of dollars in contractor claims against the EMBD in 2017.
According to Rowley, EMBD filed a complaint with the court, claiming that these individuals, along with a former government minister and former EMBD officials, engaged in an illegal conspiracy that resulted in the awarding of 12 contracts and the payment of $300 million for work that was both defective and overpriced.
According to him, a state enterprise filed this complaint on behalf of taxpayers.
He stated, “So anybody who you hear calling that a hoax or a cock and bull story or whatever else, that is the fact, that is the subject that has gone before our court.”
Rowley also criticized Persad-Bissessar, stating that he is angry with her for giving “cover” to someone who has questions to answer because he believes that this type of normalization of illegal behavior must end.
According to him, those who end themselves in court must wait for the law to work itself out.
