Finance Minister Winston Jordan has confirmed that no state money was spent directly on the inauguration of President David Granger.
While Minister Nicolette Henry was being questioned during the consideration of the budget estimates last Wednesday, opposition member Charles Ramson Jnr had inquired what funds allocated under the line item ‘National and Other Events’ were spent on. In answering, Minister Henry identified the inauguration and the T-20, which were staged at the National Stadium.
Upon hearing this, Ramson enquired further and continued to press on whether state funds were spent on the inauguration event specifically and how much was spent.
The question was subsequently put to rest by the Speaker but this did not put an end to the issue.
About 30 minutes later into the presentation, Minister Henry paused to address an article that was published online in reference to money being spent on the inauguration. Minister Henry refuted the contents of the article, credited to Citizens Report, and emphasised that she did not say any money was spent on the inauguration but $1M was spent to maintain the National Stadium, which coincided with the date of the Inauguration.
Speaker of the National Assembly Barton Scotland, who undertook to address the issue, last Friday had the recording of the questions and answers between Ramson and Henry played for the House.
After the recording was played, Scotland stated that the news entity should report to the nation in a matter that is responsible and credible and urged that the information be corrected as soon as possible.
Speaking at a post-Cabinet briefing earlier the same day, Finance Minister Jordan confirmed that no money was spent directly on the inauguration although $1M was spent on the maintenance of the National Stadium. “Essentially the stadium benefitted from the cleanup,” he said. “One million was used to trim the grass, do a bit of maintenance of the stadium, clean the toilets,” he added.
