PM Kamla Warns Caribbean Airlines: $60M on audits, 86 in finance dept, still no profits

Trinidad and Tobago: “Do your job, or you’ll have to find the door and walk away,” said Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar while issuing a blunt warning to the Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) and other state enterprises that are failing, saying that the Government will no longer be bailing out the enterprises. 

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar made the bold statement while addressing state board members at the UNC's "First 100 Days in Office" meeting, held at Camden Road in Couva on Monday night. She began by addressing Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL), highlighting that the company has 86 employees in its Finance Department, yet has spent over $60 million on external audits from two firms.

According to her, the airline has never submitted an audited financial statement for the last 9 years to present neither have they recorded any profits in any of their flight routes and the government is still pouring millions of dollars into the enterprise. 

“Your future is in your hands,” The Prime Minister made a call to action giving CAL a maximum of 2 years to sort out the mess and said that otherwise everyone working there will have to look for a new job.

She expressed that her government will no longer accept taxes paid by ordinary citizens, such as teachers, policemen, and small enterprises to  keep failing enterprises such as CAL management who are failing in their jobs to continue being paid, it must not continue 

'This cannot continue; we cannot do business like this,' Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar stated, emphasizing that her government will no longer bail out failing state enterprises, many of which remain unsuccessful despite receiving billions of dollars in funding.

She took a tougher stance on all underperforming or failing enterprises as they have led to the misuse of public funds as they have only been sponsored by the hard earned tax money of an average citizen. 

The Prime Minister is set to be reviewing Trinidad and Tobago’s failing industries and putting them to rest in a span of 2 years. The management of failing enterprises have been advised to do their jobs or they will be facing unemployment. 

The announcement was met with admiration from Trinidad and Tobago’s citizens as many took to Facebook to applaud the action with one user writing, “Thank You Madam Prime Minister Kamla For turning this country around you mean business by getting rid of corruption and a lot of things went wrong for years.”