(Trinidad Express) “Lovely place Patrick, thanks for inviting.”
This was one of the comments left by guests who were invited to stay at the three-million dollar Tobago villa that was purchased by the Urban Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) during the administration of former prime minister Patrick Manning.
Speaking at the House of Representatives, Tower D, Waterfront Centre, Port of Spain, Minister of Housing, Roodal Moonilal disclosed that while he was in Tobago last week, he visited the villa.
He questioned how could the villa be purchased for the use for a former UDeCOTT manager when guests were frequenting the place.
Moonilal also disclosed that the villa was purchased in United States dollars at a cost of US$450,000 and pointed out that he was not aware that State enterprises could conduct transactions using foreign currency. He added that approvals for the purchase of the villa cannot be found.
“This was done without board approval, it was done without Cabinet approval and I venture to say it was done without the knowledge of the then Minister in charge of UDeCOTT,” he said.
