RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says she in­tends to con­duct State busi­ness from mul­ti­ple lo­ca­tions, in­clud­ing her of­fi­cial res­i­dences at St Ann’s in Port of Spain and Blenheim in To­ba­go, as well as from sites in Cen­tral and South Trinidad and her pri­vate home.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, she said pre­vi­ous State of­fi­cials have al­so worked from pri­vate res­i­dences when re­quired, and her de­ci­sion is not un­prece­dent­ed. She clar­i­fied that she is not re­ceiv­ing a hous­ing al­lowance for work­ing at home.

She said her de­ci­sion to work from home oc­curred on­ly be­cause the of­fi­cial res­i­dence was un­fit.

How­ev­er, she ex­plained that she does not in­tend to use her pri­vate res­i­dence in­def­i­nite­ly in­stead of her of­fi­cial res­i­dences.

“There is no 'in­stead.’ I will use the res­i­dences in North Trinidad, South Trinidad and To­ba­go fa­cil­i­ties, as well as my own home, as and when it is nec­es­sary to do so and when it is con­ve­nient,” she ex­plained.

She said in the in­ter­im she will al­so utilise the Red House fa­cil­i­ty where she will host her first Cab­i­net meet­ing.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who has spent most of the week work­ing from her home at Phillip­ine, San Fer­nan­do home, said this was not the first time she had done so.

Re­gard­ing con­struc­tion ac­tiv­i­ty at her pri­vate home, she ex­plained: “We are do­ing re­pairs, in­stalling a more se­cure gate, and al­so in­stalling a more se­cure in­ter­nal gate.”

She added, “There are no ma­jor re­pairs. We start­ed some re­pairs to our home long be­fore the elec­tion was called. The re­pairs that are tak­ing place with­in the last week are the in­stal­la­tion of a more se­cure in­ter­nal gate and mak­ing the guard booth more com­fort­able.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­it­er­at­ed that she re­mains ful­ly ac­ces­si­ble and com­mit­ted to na­tion­al du­ties, re­gard­less of the lo­ca­tion from which she works.

On Mon­day, the Prime Min­is­ter's of­fi­cial res­i­dence was deemed un­fit be­cause of dys­func­tion­al scan­ners, sewage flows on the grounds, as well as bro­ken fur­ni­ture, ac­cord­ing to Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath, who pro­vid­ed video footage of the un­kempt com­pound.

Padarath said the St Clair of­fice, used for ad­min­is­tra­tive pur­pos­es and meet­ings in Port of Spain, was cramped with staff from two oth­er Min­istries, leav­ing no space for him and Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary Nicholas Mor­ris.

In To­ba­go, the Blenheim res­i­dence pro­vides ac­com­mo­da­tion for of­fi­cial vis­its and work­ing re­treats on the is­land, and Per­sad-Bisses­sar said when­ev­er nec­es­sary or con­ve­nient, she will be util­is­ing that of­fice as well.

On Thurs­day, for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley re­leased some videos of the Prime Min­is­ter's res­i­dence when he left it in March. His suc­ces­sor, Stu­art Young, nev­er moved in­to the of­fi­cial res­i­dence when he as­sumed of­fice.