Akash Sama­roo

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Se­nior Re­porter

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has de­fend­ed the $400 mil­lion al­lo­ca­tion to the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter (OPM) in the 2025 bud­get.

At the PNM’s post-bud­get meet­ing at the Bel­mont Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, what start­ed as an ex­pla­na­tion about the OPM al­lo­ca­tion and con­cerns about a $50 mil­lion en­ter­tain­ment bud­get be­ing raised by Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar on Fri­day in Par­lia­ment, even­tu­al­ly led to a shock­ing ac­cu­sa­tion that when he took over oc­cu­pa­tion at the Prime Min­is­ter’s of­fi­cial res­i­dence he dis­cov­ered a “mass of fe­male un­der­wear” that dis­tressed the plumb­ing sys­tem.

On Fri­day in Par­lia­ment the Op­po­si­tion Leader ques­tioned what she called a vague line item in the bud­get un­der “con­struc­tion of build­ings” which was al­lo­cat­ed $400M to the OPM.

“What build­ings are the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter con­struct­ing for $400M?” she asked. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said it seemed a sus­pi­cious al­lo­ca­tion in an elec­tion year.

How­ev­er, Dr Kei­th Row­ley of­fered an ex­pla­na­tion, say­ing it was mon­ey owed to the Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed (UDe­COTT) which falls un­der his purview.

“The Prime Min­is­ter has as part of his port­fo­lio, Min­is­ter for UDe­COTT. UDe­COTT re­ports to the Prime Min­is­ter. So, any al­lo­ca­tion to UDe­COTT will come up in the bud­get as OPM, Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter. You think any sane and sober Op­po­si­tion Leader should come to the Par­lia­ment and be ask­ing ques­tions and telling the coun­try that the Prime Min­is­ter take $400M?” Dr Row­ley ex­plained.

The Prime Min­is­ter said UDe­COTT had done a lot of work in re­cent times from the Red House, Pres­i­dent’s House, Queen’s Hall and the Mag­nif­i­cent Sev­en build­ings. He said for six years, UDe­COTT was not paid any mon­ey and some of the mon­ey al­lo­cat­ed to the OPM was to pay them off.

He added, “You know one of the things the Prime Min­is­ter’s of­fice is do­ing un­der UDE­COTT? Is build­ing a new hos­pi­tal block in the Port-of-Spain Hos­pi­tal. The tow­er is un­der con­struc­tion; 540 beds. It has to be paid for.”

But it was here where the Prime Min­is­ter piv­ot­ed to the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre in St Ann’s which UDe­COTT al­so man­ages. That com­pound al­so con­tains the Prime Min­is­ter’s of­fi­cial res­i­dence.

“There’s a sto­ry that you need to know,” Row­ley said to his sup­port­ers tak­ing them back in time to when he first moved in­to the com­pound with his fam­i­ly fol­low­ing the PNM’s vic­to­ry in 2015.

“The toi­let in­side the Prime Min­is­ter’s res­i­dence stink­ing up. Why isn’t it work­ing? Why is this thing not work­ing prop­er­ly? Bath­room area very stink. Call­ing WASA, WASA came and start­ed to trace the sew­er line,” Dr Row­ley claimed.

“WASA opened it to clear the block­age, you know what blocked up that pipe?”

“Ask the WASA work­ers, which com­pound they ever worked on and cleared a block­age that was a whole mass of fe­male un­der­wear. That is what we have been putting up with in this coun­try,” he said.

The PM al­so sought to ad­dress the Op­po­si­tion Leader’s claim that there had been a $49.1M in­crease in spend­ing for en­ter­tain­ment and func­tions host­ed by the OPM.

“I have as part of my perk as Prime Min­is­ter, the abil­i­ty to claim en­ter­tain­ment for monies spent for en­ter­tain­ment and food. I can’t re­call, it might have been once or twice but it is some­thing I do not use. In my very first year I might have used it with one group and we may have had a for­eign­er come in,” Dr Row­ley con­tend­ed.

Tak­ing aim at the Op­po­si­tion when it formed the Gov­ern­ment, the Prime Min­is­ter said, “If you see a cou­ple of them ty­ing their stom­ach be­cause they get so big and fat, I do not have that prob­lem. I am a golfer, I sweat and walk.”

Frus­trat­ed by the Op­po­si­tion Leader’s claims of cor­rup­tion at the OPM, the Prime Min­is­ter has asked UDe­COTT for the da­ta.

“As a re­sult of her non­sense to­day, I have asked UDE­COTT to give me the break­down of what the Prime Min­is­ter’s res­i­dence cost un­der me and what it cost un­der her. I should have that in­for­ma­tion by the time I speak in the bud­get de­bate” he said to tu­mul­tuous ap­plause.

Ques­tions per­tain­ing to the al­le­ga­tions made by the PM were sent to Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar via What­sApp mes­sages but she did not re­spond up to late yes­ter­day.