A well-placd sourc has told the T&T Guardian that there is no trace of the accounts for the purchase of more than $400,000 worth of alcohol at the official residence of the Prime Minister and Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s.
Prime Minister Keith Rowley spoke of the discovery in Parliament on Monday night. He said the alcohol was left by the former PP government, which was led by then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who resided there for some time following the September 7 general election.
Staff employed by State-owned special purpose company, Udecott, manages the Diplomatic Centre. The head of household resigned in November last year. The T&T Guardian was told “operations at the Prime Minister’s residence and Diplomatic Centre were conducted as a secret society as there were no trace of the source of funding for the alcohol.”
The T&T Guardian also understands that “there is a secret account known as Project 615 at the Prime Minister’s residence under the former regime.” The Udecott accounts were separate, the source claimed. The source also said under the PP government the residence was transformed from a place to live into a place of entertainment.
The T&T Guardian was told “$19 million was spent at the residence in 2014 alone when the PM was not living there.” Surveillance cameras at the premises were also removed from the premises, the source added.
But Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar told a news conference at he roffice at Charles Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday the claim by Rowley was “a pure, unadulterated distraction.”
She said it was the responsibility of the staff at the Diplomatic Centre and the permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister to approve such purchases. She insisted it had nothing to do with the Prime Minister.
And Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal, who acted briefly as prime minister under the PP government said those “small issues” were part of a campaign by the new PNM Government to distract national attention from more important issues facing the citizens. Moonilal spoke at a separate news briefing earlier at the same venue.
“They have no plan, they have no policy, they have no programme (on how to run the country). It is all a way to distract,” he added. He said the Diplomatic Centre was a venue for hosting national and international events and foreign delegations regularly and on every holiday there was an event there.
Among the international leaders who visited the Diplomatic Centre during the term of the PP government were the Vice-President of the United States Joe Biden; Cuba’s President Raúl Castro; Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.
Moonilal said at the shortest notice a Caricom delegation could be at the Diplomatic Centre for meetings. He said consequently the venue must be properly stocked at all times. Moonilal said those issues were handled by the Facilities Management Institution at the Diplomatic Centre.
Asked to comment on Rowley’s claim there was no information to determine the source of funding for the alcohol, the former housing and urban development minister said if the PM felt the law was broken then he had to take action.
Moonilal said there were people responsible for purchasing alcohol and other products. “A prime minister or a cabinet minister is not in charge,” he added.