President’s House says the $7.9 million projection for overseas travel for the Office of the President “was a projection which the President’s office sent to the Ministry of Finance prior to the presentation of the 2016-2017 national budget. But it says the proposal was slashed to $900.000 thus making the original proposal “a non-issue.”
At a meeting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) on Thursday it was revealed that the document detailing the $7.9 million included two trips to Europe, several trips to the United States, two trips of Mexico, one trip to the Bahamas and two trips to China.
But communications manager at President’s House, Theron Boodan, told the T&T Guardian “the document detailing the trips and the cost, became a dead document the minute Cabinet gave a new proposal. It became a non-issue.”
Boodan said the President is “committed to working within the allocation given to the Office.”
He could, however, throw no light on how a document which he described as “dead and no longer an issue” was sent to the members of the Parliament Committee prior to the meeting on Thursday.
Boodan could not say whether there are any official trips planned by the President for the first quarter of this year.
He said the President has an invitation from the President of Uganda and the Chief Justice of Uganda to address a law conference in Uganda early this year, but he could not say whether the President would attend.
At Thursday’s meeting Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharath said when he received the document he was “absolutely confounded” that the very first trip to Europe “is near double the sum approved by Parliament for the entire fiscal year.”
Chief accounting officer at President’s House, Gregory Serrette, explained that the submission by the Office of the President was merely a projection.
He said “the figures would be submitted to Cabinet for its approval and only then would the funds be utilised.”
Boodan explained that this procedure had been in place since the time of former President ANR Robinson and was also used when President George Maxwell Richards was in office.
A former government minister confirmed that President’s House like all other entities is required to send submissions to the Ministry of Finance prior to the formulation of the budget.
Those documents are examined by technocrats and it is the Minister of Finance who would take them to the Cabinet.
Prior to the information from the Office of the President Head of the Political Science Department of the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies Dr Bishnu Ragoonath had raised concerns about the hefty spend on foreign travel.
He said,“Every year it is the norm for the President to be out at least three times. This year we are hearing nine times or something like that, is this official business?”
Ragoonath said if the travel includes a state visit “then the host country bears the cost for the state visit. We pay the airfare and the host country pays for accommodation and other expenses.”
Political analyst Dr Maukash Basdeo said the “buck really stops with the accounting officer,” in this case the person who holds the post is Gregory Serrette “he will be held accountable.’
But Serrette takes instruction from the President, so who really is accountable?
To this Basdeo said: “There is a thin line that separates both offices, it is like a Minister and the Permanent Secretary, the Minister is not the accounting officer, that is the role of the Permanent Secretary.”
Legal Officer at the Office of the President Shoshanna Lalla spoke to the lack of a Human Resource Manager at the Office of the President, this she said had caused the office to breach the recruitment and selection process outlined in the Chief Personnel Officer’s circular.
In this scenario said it was the accounting Officer, the President and other officers who sat in on the interviewing process.
Her explanation followed a question from La Brea MP Nicole Olivierre as to how a possible situation of conflict of interest would be dealt with.
Serrette said while there was no “written policy, if any situation arise we would be able to arrest the situation based on best practices.”