Browne, who has gained a go-getter reputation since being brought into the Cabinet by Prime Minister Patrick Manning, has orders to sanitise URP operations in the wake of the programme gaining an unsavoury reputation as a base for political patronage and a hotbed for crime, political observers believe. The minister said it was a priority on his agenda to arrange a meeting with the managers of all ten URP regions. Information reaching the Sunday Guardian is that audits currently under way in URP Region 6 in Sangre Grande and at Region 5 in Arima, have turned up conclusive evidence that labourers rostered to work in gangs are not reporting for duty, yet collecting pay every fortnight through their bank accounts.
Labourers earn around TT$650 a fortnight.
