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For­mer min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Faris Al-Rawi is break­ing his si­lence on al­le­ga­tions tied to on­go­ing lit­i­ga­tion in­volv­ing the Com­mu­ni­ty-Based En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and En­hance­ment Pro­gramme (CEPEP). Al-Rawi said the in­for­ma­tion be­ing cir­cu­lat­ed is in­tend­ed to “de­ceive the pub­lic”.

The al­le­ga­tions, made pub­lic by CEPEP CEO Kei­th Ed­dy, were that Al-Rawi pres­sured him to ap­prove the mass re­new­al of con­trac­tor con­tracts with­out Cab­i­net ap­proval in the days lead­ing up to the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

The claims have been tak­en up by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), with Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath urg­ing Al-Rawi to ad­dress the is­sue.