PNP Opposition slams leadership of PDM, charges Government with victimization and inefficiency

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands – March 22, 2018 – The 15-month old PDM Government is coming under fire this week by the Opposition PNP which is critical of the administration’s reaction to hurricane damages caused by two major storms in September and of its inability to deliver on its election promise of ‘change’.

“One would expect that the PDM would have followed through on the plans that they presented to this country in their Change Document, unfortunately the only change that they have made clear and pronounced, is their intention to change the time and if we know what is happening in Florida, there is a bill before the legislature which is now on its way to Washington, which will be rubber-stamped which will actually set the time in Florida at the same time that we currently have.  So that change and every other attempt to change has been regressive.”

Opposition Leader for the Progressive National Party, Washington Misick, during a press conference on Tuesday lambasted the leadership style of the Premier, Sharlene Robinson and pointed to a missing new fiscal policy and desperately needed hurricane recovery plan.

“There has been no attempt to speak to the country about how government intends to raise revenue or make any changes in the revenue system and how it intends to pay for the social services that the country needs.  There has been no recovery policy, in terms of after the storm,” Hon Misick continued with, “I haven’t heard of any recovery plan by this government to make sure that people who have been badly impacted by the storm, particularly the most vulnerable among us are properly housed and proper provision is made in the event there is a recurring storm this coming season.”

Misick, who is the former Minister of Finance said that while he is unable to say how large the fiscal year end surplus will be, he can say it will be huge and is due to the lack of spending by the PDM Administration.  He pointed out what he believes, and what many believe should have happened since the hurricane.

“We have not heard anything about the construction or the expansion or the identification of new hurricane shelters.  We have the elderly and the vulnerable who are still living in appalling conditions with the roofs leaking.  We have our schools that haven’t been repaired, we have children who are attempting to learn in deplorable conditions…  the lack of their ability to draw down on the money, to spend the money to repair schools to repair government buildings to make sure that the vulnerable is cared for.  None of that is happening, the funds have just been building up and so we will close the year at the 31 March, with a huge surplus.”

Mr. Misick called it inefficiency on the part of the PDM Administration to not have spent the money collected from taxpayers.

A strong accusation of victimization was leveled at the People’s Democratic Movement Government and the party’s leader and country’s Premier, Sharlene Robinson was described as autocratic, not democratic.

“The whole approach has been almost to see who they can punish; if it is not the constituency that did not support them it would be a contractor who got a job that they should not have gotten.  We see that in the case of the South Caicos (airport) terminal, we see it in the case of the Fish Fry Village development and we see it in the case of others.“  Washington Misick continued, “One of the big problems that we face today is one where we don’t actually have a democratic approach to delivering for the people of these islands because we’ve got a leadership that is positional, in other words, expects everyone to cow-tow to her because of her position and using that to victimize rather than to empower people.”

Hon Washington Misick estimated that it would be impossible for the Turks and Caicos to progress under this style of leadership.