Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has unveiled a series of high-stakes governance updates following formal inquiries into decades of public infrastructure mismanagement, alongside plans to resolve a long-running national debate over the repatriation of citizens with ties to the Islamic State militant group. First, the 20-plus-year-old Programme for Upgrading Roads Efficiency (PURE), a state initiative originally launched to deliver widespread road rehabilitation and upgrades across the twin-island nation, will be formally dissolved, a decision first tabled during recent parliamentary Standing Finance Committee deliberations. Persad-Bissessar emphasized that the program’s two decades of operations failed to yield a functional, well-maintained national road network, particularly in underserved rural communities, despite continuous public funding allocations. A full investigative report on PURE’s operational and spending irregularities has already been submitted to the Attorney General’s office, with active probes ongoing that are on track to result in formal criminal charges against unnamed individuals in the near future, though the prime minister did not release specific details on suspected offences, targeted parties, or exact charge filing timelines. Parallel to the PURE investigation, a separate formal probe has been launched into the exorbitant $750 million expenditure authorized under the former People’s National Movement (PNM) administration for the 3-mile Churchill-Roosevelt Highway Extension project. Persad-Bissessar confirmed that senior officials from both the Ministry of Works and Transport (MOWT) and the National Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (Nidco), the state body tasked with executing major public infrastructure works, will be required to provide full, public explanations for the disproportionate cost of the short highway segment. The prime minister made these disclosures in response to targeted questions from local outlets the Sunday Express and TV6, addressing public concerns that shuttering PURE would derail the sitting government’s election pledge to reverse the country’s rapidly deteriorating road network. She stressed that closing the long-faltering program would not hinder road improvement efforts, given its decades-long track record of underdelivery. Separately, Persad-Bissessar addressed the long-contentious national debate over the repatriation of Trinidad and Tobago nationals linked to deceased ISIS fighters, most notably women and children detained in conflict-affected camps in Syria. She confirmed that Minister Sean Sobers will release a full, formal public statement on the government’s position and planned next steps in the immediate coming days, responding to renewed public appeals and recent procedural developments at the national Court of Appeal that have pushed the years-long legal and humanitarian dispute back into the national spotlight. Advocates and family members of the detained nationals have repeatedly urged the government to facilitate the safe return of the vulnerable group, which has been the subject of prolonged cross-party and civil society debate for years.