PM’s moat has own lighting

Yesterday, Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday and the Chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute Victor Hart both called on Government to account for monies spent on the Prime Minister’s Residence and Diplomatic Centre at La Fantasie, St Ann’s, which was revealed in an exclusive Newsday story to have cost an estimated $244 million, according to figures in a Udecott dossier.

“This is indicative of the enormous corruption, waste and mismanagement of this Prime Minister Patrick Manning government,” Panday said in a telephone interview from Edinburgh, Scotland. “It is the reason why they wish to keep everything secret from people and to emasculate the Freedom of Information Act, because they want to hide their corruption.”

Hart lamented the lack of information on the way money has been spent on the Udecott project.

“There is some concern about the lack of information,” he said. “Somebody should come forward and clarify how this money has been spent.

This really shows that a lot more money has gone into this complex than we thought.

It really boils back down to transparency and taking the people into confidence and having them apprised about how their money is being spent,” he said.