By: Paul Sarran
July 1, 2025
The recent mass termination of CEPEP contractors has ignited national outrage and rightly so. Over 10,000 workers, many of whom reside in vulnerable communities, are now on the breadline. Yet, while public sympathy justifiably surrounds these displaced workers, one must ask a critical question: how did the PNM, knowing fully well the political nature of these appointments, allow this catastrophe to unfold without safeguarding their own?
Let’s not pretend this was unpredictable. CEPEP, since its inception under the late Prime Minister Patrick Manning, was always more than just a make-work programme. It was an initiative born out of vision a pilot project launched in Laventille West, specifically Beetham Estate, designed to tackle poverty, unemployment, and the marginalization of inner-city communities. It worked. So well, in fact, that CEPEP became a national staple, offering thousands of citizens the dignity of honest, though modest, employment.
However, somewhere along the way, the People’s National Movement lost the plot. Despite years in government, they failed to properly institutionalize CEPEP, leaving it open to political purging by any succeeding administration. This is not new. The very structure of CEPEP short-term contracts, ministerial influence, lack of transparency makes it susceptible to political manipulation. And the PNM knew this. They were well aware that these were political appointments. They were also in a position of power to cement their people in roles that could withstand a change in government. Yet, inexplicably, they didn’t.
What transpired last week is not merely the result of vindictiveness by the new administration; it is the consequence of the PNM’s failure to strategically protect its own base. You don’t wait until an election is called to rush through over 360 contract renewals, as the records show they did between April 14 and 24, mere days before the general election. That reeks of desperation, not foresight.
This debacle is a lesson in political management. For a party that boasts of being one of the oldest and most experienced in the region, the PNM has once again proven itself unable to adapt to the realpolitik of modern governance. Their reliance on traditional loyalty and blind trust in “PNM strongholds” was arrogant and ultimately self-defeating. The PNM didn’t just lose an election they left their people vulnerable to the kind of mass unemployment we’re now seeing.
The irony is sharp: Patrick Manning built CEPEP from the ground up, starting in the very communities the PNM claims to champion. Yet those same communities are now reeling from the consequences of the party’s political negligence. CEPEP was not just a programme it was a safety net for the very people the PNM promised to uplift. That net has now been shredded, not just by the new administration, but by years of internal complacency.
And now the crocodile tears begin. Brian Manning, MP for San Fernando West and son of the programme’s founder, rushed to social media to lament the situation, calling it “vindictive and uncaring.” But where was this concern when CEPEP was being transformed into what Minister Barry Padarath rightly called a “runaway horse”? Where was the oversight? Where was the leadership? Where was the integrity in ensuring CEPEP wasn’t a slush fund for party loyalists but a dignified, transparent, community development initiative?
Worse yet, where was the legal clinic for other workers now facing eviction or already on the brink of losing their homes? Where were the advocacy efforts when people were losing other jobs before even being dropped from CEPEP? There was no coordinated safety net, no proper system of support, no legal intervention or social cushioning offered for those who were rapidly descending into deeper hardship. People were clinging to CEPEP as their last lifeline, and the PNM should have known that. But instead of reinforcing the structure, they ignored the warning signs and left their people exposed.
What’s worse is the PNM had more than enough time and authority to formalize CEPEP through legislation or protected policy frameworks, but they chose instead to maintain a system that served party convenience over citizen security. They failed to professionalize the programme, allowing it to become an exploitable political tool rather than a sustainable solution to unemployment. It was a betrayal not just of governance, but of every single worker who gave their sweat to clean the streets and maintain communities under the PNM flag. Now those workers are out in the cold, with no job, no legal recourse, and no political protection.
Let’s be real. If the PNM had maintained proper governance, audit systems, and non-political appointments within CEPEP, no government, no matter how ruthless, could so easily gut the programme overnight. Instead, they left a legacy of patronage and paper contracts, built on political loyalty rather than institutional resilience.
The end result? Thousands of citizens are now in crisis. Families scrambling at the end of the school term, children potentially unable to return to classrooms come September, and entire communities once again thrown into cycles of poverty and despair.
This isn’t just a CEPEP issue. This is a political accountability issue. And while the new administration may bear the brunt of public anger today, history will not absolve the PNM for its role in creating the conditions that allowed this to happen.
Patrick Manning once said, “You can’t build a nation on short-term thinking.” It’s a shame his successors didn’t listen.
(The author Paul Sarran is a Political Science Student at The University of the West Indies Global Campus in St Augustine.)
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