The tit-for-tat be­tween the new Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment and the Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) over the cur­rent con­di­tion of White­hall and the of­fi­cial res­i­dence of the Prime Min­is­ter (Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre) con­tin­ued yes­ter­day, when for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley post­ed a video cap­tioned “The Prime Min­is­ter’s Of­fi­cial Res­i­dence as I left it re­cent­ly” to his Face­book page.

In the three-minute-50-sec­ond video, Row­ley showed var­i­ous rooms in­side the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, lo­cat­ed on La Fan­tasie Road in St Ann’s.

On Tues­day, Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath said White­hall and the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre were un­suit­able for Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to oc­cu­py. He called the cen­tre a “dump.”

In the video yes­ter­day, how­ev­er, Row­ley, who has not spo­ken about the claims that the build­ings are un­fit for pur­pose, showed the liv­ing and of­fice spaces, and the kitchen and three bed­rooms, which all ap­peared to be in good con­di­tion. He al­so record­ed and re­leased footage of the chapel, the pool area and the gym.

But af­ter Row­ley re­leased his video of the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, Padarath record­ed a live video from the of­fi­cial res­i­dence. He in­ter­viewed the head of house­hold, Wendy Rock, who con­firmed that steps were tak­en to re­pair some of the is­sues raised on Mon­day.

Rock said they re­quest­ed $5 mil­lion in fund­ing to make re­pairs, which will take care of the gen­er­al up­grade, fur­ni­ture and fit­tings, linens and tow­els, and to mod­ernise the 19-year-old fa­cil­i­ty.

“It’s been main­tained, it’s not been up­grad­ed. The five mil­lion will be to bring this res­i­dence up to the stan­dard that is re­quired, but it is live­able,” Rock said.

In the ap­prox­i­mate­ly 25-minute-long video, Padarath said as Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter, he will have the Wa­ter and Sewage Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) ad­dress the sew­er­age prob­lem on the prop­er­ty. He said the kitchen staff al­so op­er­ates in de­plorable con­di­tions.

“The bed­rooms, you on­ly showed one main bed­room; the oth­er bed­rooms were not in a sim­i­lar con­di­tion when we ar­rived here,” he said.

Padarath again high­light­ed a stack of al­co­hol left by the for­mer ad­min­is­tra­tion, which he in­vit­ed them to come and col­lect.

“You have vod­ka and you have cham­pagne while peo­ple were suf­fer­ing in this coun­try, bed­rooms and bed­rooms of it ... they were liv­ing large, but they were not main­tain­ing the as­sets of the State,” Padarath claimed.

Con­tact­ed af­ter Padarath’s lat­est com­ments, Row­ley chal­lenged the me­dia to find out the truth.

“Don’t ask me. Go and see for your­self in­stead of be­ing spun. Did the press ask and re­ceive a tour of these prop­er­ties, or are you just pre­pared to be a re­cip­i­ent of what­ev­er is fed to you by peo­ple with agen­das?” Row­ley asked.

How­ev­er, a promised tour of the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre for the me­dia was can­celled, with Padarath lat­er ex­plain­ing it posed a se­cu­ri­ty risk.

On Wednes­day, the Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (Ude­cott) al­so said all se­cu­ri­ty scan­ners at the Prime Min­is­ter’s Of­fi­cial Res­i­dence and Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre were work­ing.

Yes­ter­day, though, Padarath showed the pedes­tri­an scan­ner on the prop­er­ty out of ser­vice. He al­so showed the bag­gage scan­ners, which were down.

“Many of them in­side of Ude­cott, they are agents of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), Noel Gar­cia and oth­ers,” he claimed.

Ef­forts to con­tact Gar­cia, the for­mer chair­man, were fu­tile.

Ayan­na de­fends Row­ley

Mean­while, for­mer To­ba­go East MP Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy is call­ing on the new Gov­ern­ment to “end the pet­ty pol­i­tics dis­guised as prin­ci­ple” and fo­cus on the job they were elect­ed to do.

In a strong­ly word­ed so­cial me­dia post shared with the video post by Row­ley, Web­ster-Roy wrote, “Get to work. Enough of the lies.”

Web­ster-Roy said un­der Row­ley’s lead­er­ship, the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre was not on­ly pre­served but re­stored to pris­tine con­di­tion, mak­ing it a dig­ni­fied and us­able space for of­fi­cial state busi­ness.

“Lega­cy mat­ters. In­sti­tu­tions mat­ter. And so does the truth,” she said.