Former Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai yesterday said she was entitled to the expenditure of $2.1 M of public money on her dental work which she had received under the previous PPP/C administration.
She was at the time answering questions from reporters during a press conference in Freedom House dealing with the dismissal of nearly 2,000 Community Support Officers in Indigenous communities by the current coalition government.
When asked about the criticisms during the election campaign of public money being expended on her dental work Sukhai responded that it was a travesty to deny young Amerindians an opportunity to enhance themselves even at their own community level. She added it would also be discrimination against any indigenous person whether they were a minister or an ordinary resident of their village to be denied any form of medical support or assistance. Sukhai went on to indicate that the issue had not prevented the residents of the hinterland from voting for the PPP. “In Regions 1, 8, 9 and other villages on the coast,” she said, “indigenous people threw their support behind the PPP.”
She added, “Minister Sukhai like every other individual who received medical support or even dental support under the PPP government also is entitled as a national or even as an Amerindian ‒ unless they are telling me that I am not supposed to enjoy any benefits that is available under the position.” Then she said, “I have a number of evidence to expose where this new government has gone berserk.”
The former minister stated that she was entitled to the sum of money given her for dental care but when questioned as to what exactly she did with it she responded, “Excuse me, people’s medical history is confidential and I would like mine to be confidential because I would not ask you if you or any other person… have HIV.”
