Young condemns Govt over lavish parties amid job cuts

For­mer Prime Min­is­ter and Port of Spain North/St Ann’s West MP Stu­art Young has ac­cused the UNC gov­ern­ment of fir­ing “tens of thou­sands of our most vul­ner­a­ble cit­i­zens” while some with­in the ad­min­is­tra­tion con­tin­ue to host what he de­scribed as ex­trav­a­gant and ex­pen­sive par­ties.

In a Face­book post this morn­ing, Young said peo­ple who de­pend­ed on em­ploy­ment un­der CEPEP, URP, Re­for­esta­tion, HDC and oth­er con­tract po­si­tions across the pub­lic ser­vice lost their jobs since the UNC ad­min­is­tra­tion came in­to of­fice.

He said the same gov­ern­ment in­struct­ed min­istries and state com­pa­nies to re­duce ex­pen­di­ture, re­sult­ing in sev­er­al en­ti­ties, in­clud­ing “those that ac­tu­al­ly make mon­ey, via prof­it, ex­am­ple, NGC and Her­itage,” can­celling end of year ac­tiv­i­ties for staff.

Young said, how­ev­er, that some in gov­ern­ment ap­peared not to have re­ceived that di­rec­tive and were hold­ing “ex­trav­a­gant, vul­gar and ex­pen­sive func­tions and par­ties,” which he said rubbed “their con­tempt, and dis­re­gard in the faces of those who at this time do not even know where their next meal will come from.”

“I con­demn these ac­tions of the UNC gov­ern­ment and the pain that they have in­ten­tion­al­ly and heart­less­ly in­flict­ed on tens of thou­sands and ask that we re­mem­ber, and do what­ev­er we can, to as­sist those who may be in need at this time,” Young wrote.