By SEAN DOUGLAS Sunday, October 14 2012

CONGRESS of the People (COP) leader, Prakash Ramadhar, has accused the PNM-led Tobago House of Assembly (THA) of failing to show its expenditure rules as required by law.

He made the comment yesterday as he addressed a People’s Partnership(PP) rally in Scarborough, Tobago.

Ramadhar said THA Act 1990 says the assembly must lay in Parliament the rules for the running of its finances, but that has never been done.

“Are you afraid to show your accounts and if you are, why?” he asked of the THA.

“Ashworth (Jack) will tell you, next election,” he said, hailing the TOP leader.

Ramadhar added, “For 12 years THA betrayed the trust of the people of Tobago. The time has come for them to go.”

Alleging electioneering, he hit the PNM-led THA, which he said is only now seeking to put up an aquatic centre and a library in Tobago just before the forthcoming THA election.

Ramadhar said Tobago is now on a low, but something can be lifted with a “Jack”, in this case, Ashworth Jack.

Ramadhar said he was proud of what the PP had achieved in Tobago since 2010, such as letting residents access an electronic registration office to get birth certificates in Bacolet through his Ministry of Legal Affairs. Much work has also been done by his Ministry to get Tobagonians land deeds, he said.

Ramadhar said he aims to let land buyers bypass the costly attorneys mandated by some banks and financial institutions.

“We want to change the conveyancing laws in TT. If you have a friend or family who is lawyer tell that bank ‘this is my lawyer and I’m not paying your lawyer.’”

For persons who fall sick and meet hard times, he also promised a change to the law.

“No bank or financial institution could take your home after you pay more than 50 percent of your mortgage unless they go to court.”

He also promised a Tobago university campus.