The Editor,
The 2020 suite of amendments to the Public Procurement & Disposal of Public Property Act (the Act) removed oversight from some significant types of public spending and created the option for the Finance Minister to create new exemptions. That Ministerial discretion to create new exemptions is now the subject of considerable controversy and threatened lawsuits.
These issues have emerged from two three-month Ministerial exemptions – the Judiciary on 29th May and the 50th CARICOM Anniversary/Diplomatic matters on 29th June. The first of those exemptions came as no surprise, given the Judiciary’s bizarre and still unexplained objections to the Act. The second set came to the attention of the Opposition and triggered the PM to promise that the Act will be accordingly amended/rectified at a special Parliamentary sitting next week.
It is really important to pause at these moments to take our bearings and record exactly what has taken place.
It is clear from the Hansard that Parliament intended and agreed that these Ministerial Exemptions would be subject to ‘affirmative resolution’, meaning that the proposed Amendment had to be tabled/listed in Parliament for Public notice, Debated and then Voted upon by both Houses. The purpose of that arrangement being that although the Govt will naturally hold the majority of votes in the Parliament, the Public and the Opposition can have proper Notice of any intended Exemptions and take the necessary steps to deal with it politically.
For whatever reason, that intention is not in the text of the 2020 Amendments, so the literal reading is that the Minister can create those exemptions via an Order without any reference to Parliament. Of course, the proper interpretation of that law would require a Court to examine Parliament’s debates to decide, so one can only wonder on what advice was the Finance Minister proceeding.
The Finance Minister has been in office since 2015 and his agreement to the affirmative resolution provision (Hansard of 8 December 2020 – pg 202), as well as his recognition that this error had arisen and needed to be rectified (Hansard of 11 December 2020 – pg 43) are both on the record. The compelling and inescapable issue being that the Finance Minister knew of the typo in the text and took full advantage of it in a manner which is unbecoming and in my view, quite contrary to his Oath of Office.
Finally, we should all remain alert as these are just a few of the bizarre convulsions from players who are accustomed to the lights being off, or at least suitably dimmed. Sunlight is the best Disinfectant.
Afra Raymond
former JCC President
ADDENDUM
The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian published a overview written by Kejan Haynes of the situation based on the letter to the editor and concerns from others.
AfraRaymond.net 
One of the more disgusting framing aspects of T&T law is the phrase “The Minister may” or equivalent.
Political manipulations from our adjounment judicial system produce extended time in office and they constitute the major foundation blocks of their highly paid charade at administration. The innocuous and those which favour fiscal furnishings become laws they parade as having produced. The global barbaric theft of mineral wealth from the ‘others’ described ironically as poor et al, enslaves two thirds of us at all levels.
Your efforts are most appreciated yet many Clico investors remain unpaid, a foreign hotel will soon invade Tobago and the magicians will once again empty the treasury and we will be flogged and forced to replenish it, legally.
‘The poisoned well’ Afra.