Yvonne Webb

Dogged by per­cep­tions of wrong­do­ing af­ter her friend was named as the pre­ferred bid­der for a lu­cra­tive NP con­tract, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day de­clared that she is open to pub­lic scruti­ny. Her com­ment fol­lowed calls by Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley for the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion to in­ves­ti­gate her stay at the Tu­na­puna res­i­dence of Ralph and Mau­reen Gopaul, af­ter her May 24, 2010, elec­tion as Prime Min­is­ter. "That's not a prob­lem...ab­solute­ly not a prob­lem," Per­sad-Bisses­sar told re­porters, af­ter the launch of the Sug­ar Her­itage Vil­lage and Mu­se­um Project at Brechin Cas­tle, Cou­va.

On Tues­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar ad­mit­ted that her stay at the Gopaul's was at no ad­di­tion­al cost to tax­pay­ers. Row­ley con­tend­ed yes­ter­day that since the State did not in­cur any ex­pens­es for the pe­ri­od of the Prime Min­is­ter's stay at the home of the Gopauls, it was a pos­si­ble gift with­in the mean­ing of the In­tegri­ty in Pub­lic Life Act. Asked to com­ment on that is­sue, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said: "I would have to re­al­ly hear what he has said be­fore I can com­ment ap­pro­pri­ate­ly."

Fur­ther ques­tions about the Gopaul con­tract were met with a terse re­sponse: "I would want to await the re­port from the line min­is­ter, the in­de­pen­dent re­port, be­fore I make any more com­ments on this mat­ter."

In the Sen­ate on Tues­day, Hous­ing Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal al­so said the Prime Min­is­ter's stay at the Tu­na­puna res­i­dence saved the State mon­ey as there were no charges for her ac­com­mo­da­tion there be­fore and af­ter the elec­tion. The ex­pla­na­tions came days af­ter al­le­ga­tions that a com­pa­ny owned by the Gopauls was the suc­cess­ful bid­der for a $40 mil­lion con­tract from state-owned Na­tion­al Pe­tro­le­um Co Ltd. Line Min­is­ter Car­olyn Seep­er­sad-Bachan has ap­point­ed an in­de­pen­dent team to re­view award of that con­tract.