Last night Housing Minister Michael Finnegan let loose on the Trade Union Congress for first refusing and then suddenly agreeing to serving on the Regional Oversight Committees for the Venezuelan housing money. The unions were asked to serve in January but in February they declined because they were unhappy about the way in which the funds will be disbursed. But it seems they had a change of heart last week – after our story aired – and submitted the names of their nominees to the Prime Minister. Housing Minister Finnegan told us yesterday that the train had already left the station and the unions were a little too late. He also berated the social partners for taking the government’s kindness for weekend. Well it seems those comments ruffled a few feathers and today Javier Roberts, General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress fired back. For context we’ll replay what Finnegan said yesterday.
Hon. Michael Finnegan, Minister of Housing
"If you want my personal opinion, as the Minister of Housing, I believe that that train it has left them and that train has nearly reached its destination at the other junction.”
Javier Roberts, General Secretary – NTUCB
“The Minister said that we initially said that we did not want to participate and that is not the case. We only said that we needed some clarification before we participate. And on the 23rd of July we sent a correspondence indicated that we have finalized our selection process and we named our representatives and in his interview he said that the train has left the station and he doesn’t understand why the late or the change of heart. But we are willing to participate at whatever stage the process is right now and since it is an oversight there can always be review of what has happened with the initial $2.5 million which he says has been spent so far. But the process needs to be as transparent and as clear cut and we wanted to ensure that before we participated.”
Keith Swift,
“Are you satisfied now that without your participation that the process is fair and transparent?”
Javier Roberts,
“Well like I said Keith we are not sure what has transpired since then because they went ahead and started convening meetings without any input from the social partners.”
Hon. Michael Finnegan,
“That is what they said, they said they didn’t want to be a part of it. Five months later, four months later they want now to be a part of it. So that papisho the government dah papisho?”
Javier Roberts,
“I don’t see how we are taking advantage. We have our process, they have their process of doing things. Similarly like how we cannot impose on them what we would like, we can only make recommendations similarly they cannot dictate to the NTUCB how our process works and like I said we represent ten unions and we must get the input of all those unions and get a general consensus before we make any definite decision.”
Cabinet was expected to make a decision on whether the nominees will be accepted today. The nominee for the northern region is Horris Patten, for the central region, Richard Bowman, for the western region, Ramon Carcamo, and for the southern region, Cordelia Foreman. According to Minister Finnegan, about $2.5 million of the Venezuela housing money has already been disbursed.
