Op­po­si­tion MP Sad­dam Ho­sein is de­mand­ing that the Gov­ern­ment re­veal how many state en­ter­pris­es fund­ed the PNM’s Red Fete, af­ter Works Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan con­firmed that PLIPDE­CO used pub­lic mon­ey to buy tick­ets for the par­ty’s Car­ni­val fundrais­er.

In a state­ment is­sued on Sat­ur­day, the Barataria/San Juan MP said Sinanan, as line min­is­ter for PLIPDE­CO and deputy po­lit­i­cal leader of the PNM, “must now re­veal how many oth­er state en­ter­pris­es were used to fund this event.”

Ho­sein said tax­pay­ers’ mon­ey was used for po­lit­i­cal pur­pos­es. “PLIPDE­CO’s pur­chase of those tick­ets is akin to us­ing tax­pay­ers’ dol­lars to fund the PNM for pur­pos­es of the gen­er­al elec­tions,” he said.

He added that the memo con­firmed the mon­ey was hand­ed over to the PNM di­rect­ly, but PLIPDE­CO did not know who col­lect­ed the funds. “What is even more con­cern­ing in the memo is PLIPDE­CO was un­aware of the iden­ti­ty of the per­son who col­lect­ed the monies on be­half of the PNM,” he said.

Call­ing it “a drop in the buck­et,” Ho­sein said the Red Fete tick­et pur­chase fits a larg­er pat­tern. “This is the PNM us­ing gov­ern­ment re­sources and tax­pay­ers’ dol­lars to fund the par­ty.”

Ho­sein read from the in­ter­nal memo dur­ing a UNC meet­ing on Thurs­day. The memo, signed by PLIPDE­CO’s act­ing pres­i­dent Cur­tis Den­nie, con­firmed the com­pa­ny re­quest­ed fund­ing for 18 tick­ets—six gen­er­al and 12 VIP—at a to­tal cost of $20,000. It al­so con­firmed that pay­ment was made di­rect­ly to the PNM.

He crit­i­cised the event’s lo­ca­tion as well, point­ing out that the par­ty held the fundrais­er on state prop­er­ty at the Gov­ern­ment Cam­pus Plaza. “They’re us­ing pub­lic mon­ey to buy PNM fete tick­ets,” he said, “it’s a breach of the In­tegri­ty in Pub­lic Life law.”

Sinanan has re­ject­ed the crit­i­cism, de­fend­ing the pur­chase as an act of “re­ward and recog­ni­tion” for staff. He said no board mem­bers re­ceived tick­ets. He al­so ac­cused Ho­sein of ig­nor­ing sim­i­lar ac­tions un­der the pre­vi­ous UNC-led ad­min­is­tra­tion, say­ing the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny spent over $350,000 on fete tick­ets in 2015.