House Speaker Barendra Sinanan threatened to suspend last evening’s House of Representatives sitting for close to two hours, due to loud exchanges between Government and Opposition MPs when Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira was responding to a motion on the Trinidad and Tobago International Financial Centre (TTIFC).

Sinanan did so less than five minutes after he asked Government MPs to tone down their voices as they sought to support the response being made by Nunez-Tesheira to the motion raised by Opposition MP Vasant Bharath, who claimed there has been a lack of financial activity at the TTIFC.

’Members on the Government bench, I want to hear the minister. It is very important that I want to, that I hear, the minister. Please. Member for Caroni Central, umm, Diego Martin Central in particular,’ Sinanan said.

He had mistakenly identified Diego Martin Central MP Dr Amery Browne, the Minister of Social Development, as the MP for Caroni Central, who is Dr Hamza Rafeeq.

Sinanan’s intervention did result in a quieter Chamber for a few minutes, until Nunez-Tesheira repeated her previous claim that the Opposition sought to have international bond rating agency Standards & Poors downgrade Trinidad & Tobago-a claim the Opposition has staunchly denied.

At one point, Bharath shouted, ’This is not a fish market!’

’I will never descend into fish market behaviour. I leave it for your side to indulge in that,’ Nunez-Tesheira said.

As she sought to explain why she was raising her voice, Sinanan rose to his feet at 5.35 p.m.

’Let me tell you one of the powers I have. You know I can do. I can suspend the sitting of this House and bring you all back at 6 o’clock or 7 o’clock. So if you don’t want me to do that, please, I want to hear the minister in silence,’ Sinanan said.

He then added: ’I have nothing to do this evening whatsoever.’

Nunez-Tesheira was able to continue with her response to Bharath’s motion uninterrupted, and said that the international financial crisis has required the Government to ’step back, do the necessary introspection and make sure we are on the right track’, regarding the TTIFC, which is housed in two high-rise buildings at the Waterfront in downtown Port of Spain.

’And we are satisfied that we are on the right track,’ Nunez-Tesheira said.

She said certain recommendations presented to her by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers are going to go before Cabinet ’very shortly’, regarding a ceiling for the tax structure and the legal framework for the TTIFC, and added that the required Special Economic Zone laws have already been drafted.

Asked by Bharath to identity the clients and potential clients at the TTIFC, Nunez-Tesheira said it would be ’foolish and foolhardy’ for the Government to do so until the Cabinet has approved the draft legislation for the TTIFC.