Chairman of the T&T Cancer Society George Laquis says his organisation is willing to sign an agreement accepting $1.5 million from the Government but will not forget the $6 million which the Government owes the society.
Laquis said the Government has not contributed any funds to the organisation for the past three years and was currently owed some $6 million. In an interview yesterday, Laquis said he was “disgusted” by the outcome of events.
“We are going to accept the money which is just a subvention from the work we do and this is a public work.
“They (the Government) said they can’t pay us what they owe us and we will accept that but we are not forgetting the payment. They saying forget it. “
“They have a problem. We (referring to the Government) continue to build buildings we don’t know what the hell to do with,” he said.
He added: “I don’t know what the hell we doing with the buildings and there should be lifestyle changes to prevent diseases and early detection.”
Laquis said it cost the society when a man gets cancer and dies which in turn costs society to lose 25 years of productivity.
“Their focus is wrong. None of them understand healthcare delivery. It is simple as that. They don’t understand, they think putting up buildings cure disease.
“I am very disgusted, we have patients to see about. We can’t have pride and ego in this things. The politicians priority are different from ours,” he said.
Laquis stressed that the Government is more considering buildings because buildings make them look good.
“They have a million roads with pothole and building roads. The politicians want to win the next election. They do not know how to govern a country. Its all of them not only PNM,” he said.
He said the Cancer Society will be accepting the $1.5 million funds by next week and start the new arrangement which began from January 2018.
“It is a three-year agreement. We are grateful because we need the money and lived off the private sector for the past 48 years and our support was always good from the general public or individuals. That is how we survived.
“The subsidy from Government helped us keep our prices low. Its all about early detection and prevention. That’s the game its a simple formula,” he said.
Laquis said the Cancer Society told the Government that they could not forget the $6million owed to the society and we would not try to collect it at the moment.