TRINIDAD JUST AS BAD AS JAMAICA…CONTRACTS GIVEN TO GANGSTERS

Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Rural Development and Local Government says an expansive audit will be conducted into the multi-mil­lion dol­lar con­tracts giv­en to sev­en re­put­ed gang lead­ers at two government con­trolled cor­po­ra­tions.

In a media release, Kaz­im Ho­sein sig­nalled his in­ten­tion to have the mat­ter prop­er­ly in­ves­ti­gat­ed.

His de­ci­sion came just hours af­ter the Trinidad Guardian newspaper pub­lished a re­port which high­light­ed the de­tails of a con­fi­den­tial Spe­cial Branch re­port which named sev­en re­put­ed gang lead­ers who ben­e­fit­ted from mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar State con­tracts from the Diego Mar­tin Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion and the Port-of-Spain Cor­po­ra­tion.

The in­for­ma­tion con­tained in a con­fi­den­tial re­port pre­pared in mid-May forms part of a Guardian Me­dia in­ves­ti­ga­tion, just one week after Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith blamed the State for plac­ing funds in the hands of gang lead­ers.

Mr. Grif­fith warned that the prac­tice had fu­elled gang wars and contributed to an up­surge in homi­cides over the last 15 years.