ONE hundred and twenty million dollars ($120m) was allocated to the Witness Protection Programme between 2019 to 2022, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has said.
He was speaking during the 2023/2024 Budget debate on Thursday in the Lower House.
Dr Rowley said, “We allocated between 2019 and 2022, we allocated $120 million. The other programme we spent $111 million, 73% of that on the actual persons, because you have to mind them in secret, and the 27 % on the administration of the programme. And that programme is costing us about $30 million a year, two point something one million dollars a month and in the face of that, the opposition leader will come here and give the impression that if we had a protection programme, as though we have none. And this is somebody who served as prime minister and the chairman of the National Security Council, who knows about this. Let me correct that. Who ought to know.”
He said, “Nobody in this country can say that they are happy with what is happening in our country, with respect to crime, criminality and violence in general, comes at us from all directions, in all forms and fashion.”
Dr Rowley said in this programme one murder case takes place per year, and therefor the taxpayer was taking a beating.
The prime minister acknowledged that the government has its responsibility. He said, “There are government agencies on the job, and we are continuously confronting these issues, there’s no short cut and there is no easy solution.”
Dr Rowley said, “When politicians come and pretend that if they were in office, this wasn’t going to happen. But of course, if they have the opportunity to help, they should help, and we welcome the help.”
He said, “The woman speak as if they have information that is not available to anybody else and therefore, they are alerting the public. The Opposition Leader spoke interestingly about the Witness Protection Programme.
“And did so specifically, while calling the name of a child, that horrible situation where the child went with her father to report a rape, and then within hours having returned home, one or more of our citizens… went to their home and attempted to snuff out the family, well of course the Opposition Leader was delighted about that.
“So he came in to report that had we been involved in a witness protection programme, the child could have been protected.”
Dr Rowley said, “The child went to report an incident of crime, almost immediately the criminals killed the child and the family members were damaged. What does the Opposition Leader say, in her criticism of the government? That we should have a programme where you go to the witness protection programme before you report the crime?”
He said, “But they so want to play politics with the instance of crime in the country that the opposition leader came here and talk that foolishness. If the crime is not reported, then how in god’s name could it become a part of the witness protection programme. Witness to what an unreported crime? Just in case anybody in this country follows the opposition leader and believes that there’s no witness protection ever been made by this country, let me tell you what it is.”
Dr Rowley said, “We are engaged in something called the Justice Protection Programme, and it’s not even local, it’s international and it’s not a small programme and it’s not cheap. Between 2020 and 2023, in our programme here in Trinidad and Tobago we are engaged in managing 401 persons in that programme.”
He said 401 persons in the Justice Protection Programme included 145 witnesses and 256 family members.
Dr Rowley said, “When you are protecting the witness from the criminal, in many instances you also have to protect their families, because the criminals decide that they are not going to go before the court, there will be no witness to carry out the case to be made against them. So, the family is also at risk. So, we end up protecting more family members than actual witnesses.”
He said, “Sixteen percent of that are non-citizens, are CARICOM citizens, who we interact with in a similar way coming from their territory to us, because they have the same problem there too.”
