Dr Keith Rowley has given the assurance that as prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, he will never entertain an oil company executive in his hotel room wearing “a duster and bed room slippers.”
Rowley made the comment as he told the story of travelling to Germany as opposition leader and having to appease the board of directors of a major bank that was funding Point Lisas, because they were concerned by some actions of then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Speaking at the People National Movement’s (PNM) post-Budget political meeting on Friday night, Rowley dismissed Persad-Bissessar claims that there was something untoward with him meeting officials from a major German power company earlier this year at his office.
In her budget response, Persad-Bissessar claimed Government was undertaking a “secret” sale of Trinidad Generation Unlimited (TGU) to the German industrial services company Ferostaal GmBH without any procurement process. (See page A6)
“Kamla that is your style, that is not my style,” Rowley said.
Rowley then told of travelling overseas as opposition leader and meeting officials.
“Once I went to Germany to talk to the people in one of the major banks that fund the Point Lisas operations and when I got there I met with the board and you know what the chairman of the board told me when I walked into the room, ... he said I am glad you came because we were about to reconsider our position in Trinidad and Tobago, that was when Kamla and her Cabinet were in a rampage in this country but I gave them hope, I told them hold on an election is coming ,” Rowley said.
“And the one thing you can be guaranteed about is that I as your prime minister will never entertain any oil company executive in my hotel in my pyjamas. I not doing that, I am your Prime Minister, duster and bedroom slippers to entertain oil company executives?”
He also defended his travel since becoming PM after questions from Persad-Bissessar.
“I travel when I think it can benefit the people of Trinidad and Tobago and she has the gall to come to the Parliament, she and her imps, to be asking about how much travel I do. Let me tell you something, as Prime Minister in the first two years I have travelled, I think, on seven occasions and on every occasion it is on important matters that require the attention and presence of the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.
Rowley said in contrast Persad-Bissessar travelled 14 times in her first two years as PM, including a trip to “New York to celebrate Indian National Day.” He said she also travelled with an entire entourage and noted Barry Padarath, whose only function was to carry “her briefcase and her shawl,” once racked up a $90,000 bill.
Despite her own exorbitant travel expenses, he said Persad-Bissessar was now making noise about Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe’ phone bill and Sport Minister Darryl Smith’s Tobago outing with with ministry colleagues, Rowley said.
“Those two infractions (Cudjoe and Smith) are minuscule when put up against the savings that we have made across the board across the country as the Government of Trinidad and Tobago,” Rowley said.