PM: No rewards for the lazy

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has warned that no mat­ter what is said in to­day’s Bud­get, some cit­i­zens who have a poor work eth­ic, dis­hon­est be­hav­iour, bad habits and neg­a­tive at­ti­tudes will con­tin­ue to strug­gle.

In a so­cial me­dia post yes­ter­day, ahead of her Gov­ern­ment’s 2027 Bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion, Per­sad-Bisses­sar slammed cit­i­zens who have tak­en tem­po­rary wel­fare pro­grammes, state con­tracts, gov­ern­ment as­sis­tance and em­ploy­ment in gov­ern­ment agen­cies and turned them in­to per­ma­nent schemes for “dis­hon­est­ly gen­er­at­ing per­son­al in­come.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “There will be bet­ter and brighter days ahead for all law-abid­ing cit­i­zens who study dili­gent­ly, work hon­est­ly, make good choic­es and live pro­duc­tive lives.

“Con­verse­ly, no mat­ter what is said in Mon­day’s bud­get, some cit­i­zens who have a poor work eth­ic, dis­hon­est be­hav­iour, bad habits and neg­a­tive at­ti­tudes will con­tin­ue to strug­gle.”

She added, “As your Prime Min­is­ter, I can­not al­low the coun­try’s progress to con­tin­ue to be held back by those who refuse to take per­son­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to im­prove them­selves de­spite re­ceiv­ing in­cen­tives, con­tracts, ben­e­fits and as­sis­tance from the state for years. Some cit­i­zens have tak­en tem­po­rary wel­fare pro­grammes, state con­tracts, gov­ern­ment as­sis­tance, and em­ploy­ment in gov­ern­ment agen­cies and turned them in­to per­ma­nent schemes for dis­hon­est­ly gen­er­at­ing per­son­al in­come.”

The Prime Min­is­ter said these schemes are fund­ed “from the tax­es of hard­work­ing cit­i­zens who go out every day to im­prove their lives and con­tribute pos­i­tive­ly to our suc­cess as a so­ci­ety.”

“The coun­try’s rev­enues should be di­rect­ed to pro­duc­tive mea­sures for eco­nom­ic growth and the pay­ment of work­ers who give hon­est ef­fort at their places of em­ploy­ment.”

She said Trinidad and To­ba­go, as a na­tion and a peo­ple, have been blessed with much but “we’ve have al­so wast­ed much.”

She added, “Law-abid­ing tax­pay­ers must no longer foot the bills of in­dis­ci­plined lazy per­sons who take no per­son­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, put no ef­fort in­to pro­duc­tive ac­tiv­i­ties and on­ly seek to re­ceive in­come through de­cep­tion, fraud and cor­rup­tion.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said her Gov­ern­ment has ceased the decades-old prac­tice of gov­ern­ing to sim­ply win the next gen­er­al elec­tion.

“We’re gov­ern­ing to cre­ate peace, dis­ci­pline, wealth and op­por­tu­ni­ties for sev­en gen­er­a­tions in­to the fu­ture.

“Our so­ci­ety must be re­bal­anced in favour of the law-abid­ing, hard-work­ing, hon­est cit­i­zens and away from re­ward­ing lazi­ness, il­le­gal­i­ty, ir­re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and neg­a­tive be­hav­iours.”