By Clint Chan Tack Saturday, September 12 2009

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HI-FIVE: Minister of Information, Neil Parsanlal, during his budget presentation yesterday....

INFORMATION Minister Neil Parsanlal yesterday declared that Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday’s first budget reply in four years has proven to the population that the UNC will never be “a credible alternative to the PNM” to govern this country.

Before Parsanlal delivered the Government’s first budget response to Panday in the House, Speaker Barry Sinanan sternly warned all MPs to give him the same respect they gave to Panday while the UNC leader was speaking. “So if any member intends to get rowdy, may I advise you, don’t,” Sinanan stated.

After congratulating Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira for her contribution, Parsanlal thanked Panday for his contribution “albeit for reasons completely opposite to the Finance Minister.”

Parsanlal then reminded MPs why Panday had not given a budget reply in four years.

“He was out in 2006 and 2007 because of a two-year jail sentence to declare a London bank account to the Integrity commission. Having returned to the Parliament after the 2007 general elections, he was suspended in Feb 2008 by the house for gross disrespect to the Chair,” the minister said.

Parsanlal then quoted Panday’s 2005 budget reply. “This may very well be the last budget reply that I shall deliver to this honourable house in this capacity.

The time has come for me to move on to other things, and other places where the world is not collapsing around me where the air is rare, where men can hold their heads high, where beauty is pure and its performance unhindered by the trappings of office.”

The minister said Panday should have heeded his own advice because “what he gave from morning until afternoon was, a rusty reply.”

Declaring that all of the Panday’s budget recommendations “are already PNM policy,” Parsanlal slammed Panday for “behaving like Caesar’s wife, accusing the Government of being criminal in all manner. He said Panday was out of place to condemn new fiscal measures against traffic offenders when the former government failed to implement a November 28, 1996 Cabinet note to appoint traffic wardens to deal with lawlessness on the nation’s roads.

Contrary to Panday’s claims, Parsanlal said the Global Competitiveness Report really showed that the country’s’s performance had improved, moving from 92nd position in 2008 to 86th this year.

He said perception of corruption fell from 13.2 to 9.1 percent over this period while perception of crime fell from 21.9 to 17.9 percent. Expressing confidence that this year’s Transparency International corruption perception index will see an improvement in this country’s rating, Parsanlal said the perceived corruption in TT only increased “after the UNC demited office and UNC politicians and financiers started parading before the courts every Monday morning.”