By: Capil Bissoon
July 18, 2025
*_After the PNM Scholarship slush fund, we now have a much bigger scandal totalling hundreds of millions of dollars with the political manipulation, misusing and misdirecting of URP and CEPEC contracts by the last PNM Administration._*
The revelations of how the last Keith Rowley-led PNM Administration “managed” the both the Unemployment Relief (URP) and CEPEC Programmes through political financial manipulation by misusing and misdirecting the programme’s contracts to its own members which resulted in millions of taxpayers’ dollars continue to dominate the news on a daily basis.
The new Government’s decision to terminate many of the contracts was not directed at the thousands of URP and CEPEC workers but rather at the actual contractors, some 360. These workers received the crumbs from the URP and CEPEC while the contractors, because of partisan affiliation, were receiving millions.
The former PNM administration never followed the core mandate of CEPEC, which was a programme designed to transition people out of a temporary type of employment and into more sustainable jobs but rather turned them into a political feeding frenzy.
The basic tenets of the programme were exploited beyond any doubt; the then ruling dispensation never cared about the ordinary workers but rather about lucrative deals and contracts for those with close ties to the PNM.
The new Govt has taken a decision to root out corruption involving taxpayers’ dollars and restore morality, integrity and best business practices in both programmes. However, the workers are unfortunately bearing the brunt of the burden for the corruption and misconduct of both these very partisan-controlled CEPEP, URP and its contractors.
Among some of the contractors were the current Opposition Leader and former Cabinet Minister Penny Beckles’s father and two separate companies linked a to current and former San Fernando City Corporation who were the recipients of nearly $9.7 Million contracts.
We are also reading whereby senior party activists were “employed” in these programmes at exorbitant salaries. Alarmingly, most of these “employees” never reported for work; one was receiving a “salary” while a full-time student at UWI St Augustine and the other was also a full-time student at UWI in Barbados.
How many of these contractors fulfilled their statutory obligations by paying the health surcharge, VAT, NIS, or to the Green Fund Levy as employers and on behalf of their employees as required by law?
The overall size and obscene nature of those contracts also prompts one to wonder whether a portion of the payments, and if so, how much, made it’s way back to the PNM coffers, in a clandestine manner in order to fund the financing of its headquarters, other assets and its operating expenses.
But why are we so surprise at these revelations; after all, it is the PNM.
Under a previous PNM Administration, this time led by the late Patrick Manning, the nation in 2010 was shocked to learn that there was a political scholarship slush fund being managed/distributed by the Ministry of Culture under Senator Joan Yuille-Williams during 2003-2007.
The Community Development Scholarship Programme (CSDP) was established in March 2002 to provide financial assistance to facilitate training and study in non-traditional areas. The Parliamentary records revealed there was no public announcement of this “significant decision” as there was already in existence, normal State-sponsored systems for the award of open and additional national scholarships.
Once again, it was taxpayers’ money being channeled to and created exclusively for the benefit of the PNM’s friends and family.
Among those who benefitted from the PNM’s secret slush fund were a PNM alderman, several councillors and even members of the media. A further breakdown showed 225 persons with no application on file received funding amounting to $10,997,552; 1,295 applications of 68% contained no documentation that provided evidence of financial need or socio-economic circumstances and 420 applicants provided no evidence of financial need and received funding amounting to $20,180,034. A further 22 persons who received aggregate funding of over $100,000 had no application on file!
So, after the PNM Scholarship slush fund, we now have a much bigger scandal totalling hundreds of millions of dollars with the political manipulation of URP and CEPEC contracts by the last Administration.
The UNC-led Administration cannot allow those who exploited the treasury to bluster their way through these unethical practices and not pay the price.
This is why it is important to I halt both programmes and for the Administration to initiate and implement a complete reorganization of the CEPEC and URP programmes to ensure greater transparency and fairness in the handing out of taxpayers’ funds.
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