Trinidad fears gang backlash after corrupt contract purge

Trinidad and Tobago’s recent measures to root out corruption in public contracts linked to gangs may trigger a backlash from criminal organisations that have long profited from community development programs.

The government has suspended several public contracts awarded through local development initiatives, including the Unemployment Relief Programme and the Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme. Those contracts are now being restructured following allegations of corruption and criminal infiltration.

According to official investigations, gangs received contracts to carry out public works and provide services through both programs, and even registered fake employees (‘ghost workers’), to siphon off funds.

Amid these efforts to clean up public contracting, in mid-August, Trinidadian intelligence agencies detected a collective bounty of 2.8 million Trinidad and Tobago dollars (about US$420,000) for the assassination of three senior politicians.

The government declared a state of emergency in mid-July after intelligence reports suggested that gang leaders were coordinating assassinations of senior state officials from prison, with help from corrupt officials.

A prison officer was later arrested and accused of collaborating with the Radical Islamic Criminal Gang, according to an arrest warrant issued by the National Security Ministry on August 18.

Criminal gangs remain Trinidad and Tobago’s main security threat. In 2024, gangs were behind 43% of the country’s murders, which reached a record high of 625 killings. Easy access to firearms, social isolation in poor communities, and turf wars among increasingly fragmented gangs have all fuelled the violence.

The review of public contracts aims to cut off gang profits in some of the country’s poorest communities. In recent years, the annual budget for each program has ranged between $40 million and $66 million.