Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo on Wednesday told the National Assembly that no public funds have been spent on any political activities he has been a part of during the ongoing local government elections campaign.
Nagamootoo made the declaration while answering questions posed by PPP/C Member of Parliament Odinga Lumumba.
Nagamootoo told the House that as of August, 2018, he has spent $24 million of the $109.2 million of his office’s budget, with the largest sum being used for outreaches.
Asked by Lumumba how and what the monies were spent on, Nagamootoo gave a breakdown of the spending, with the largest sums being the $5.5 million used for outreaches and $5 million for constitutional reform activities.
The outreaches, he said, included the launching of regional extension radio stations at Aishalton, Orealla and Bartica, training of radio personnel and other outreach activities in several regions to deal with Amerindian affairs.
Supervisory consultancy for the regional radio project accounted for $4.6 million; information technology, email and website services accounted for $1.2 million; repairs to furniture at office and official residence, reupholstering of furniture at office and official residence, and the replacement, cleaning of curtains and carpets accounted for $1.4 million; and events and functions at official residence and office accounted for $1.6 million. Other minor expenses for the office and the official residence, such as purchase of tickets, books, paintings, printing of badges/labels, framing pictures, stipends for work study students, stipends for cleaning services and purchase of cell phones for staff amounted to $2.1 million in total.
Asked how much was spent on the Alliance For Change (AFC) campaign in outreaches in the lead up to the local government elections and how much was used for the recent public meeting at Auchlyne, on the Corentyne, Nagamootoo said, “I personally paid for the tent and the chairs at Auchlyne.”
His remarks caused much desk thumping from the government benches and both sides of the House erupted into laughter when he said the organisers of the event found that the school building was too small to accommodate the crowd and as a result they had to rent chairs to accommodate the crowd that had gathered to greet President David Granger and “their” Prime Minister and his wife. His wife, he said, provided snacks for the children.
“It cannot be said,” he said, “even though we may trivialise these matters in this season of electioneering and propagandising, we cannot say that any abuse has taken place with regards to public funds to finance any of the political activities that the Prime Minister may have been involved in.”
His comments that other politicians were using the largesse of the state and $20 million a year, free security and transportation to do political work was drowned out by loud murmurs and laughter in the House.
“The Office of the Prime Minister has been very frugal in regards to outreaches relating to the Prime Minister’s activities,” he said, while noting that whatever was not spent will go back to the treasury.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo at a press conference on Thursday suggested that half of the funds for the Prime Minister’s outreaches was for campaign purposes.
“That was only up to August. I wonder what they have done from August to now. How much this has grown by?” he questioned.
He scoffed at money being spent on the repairs to furniture and cleaning at the Prime Minister’s office and official residence, the framing of pictures, buying tickets, books “and all of that stuff.” He said, “That is where our money is going… by the end of the year, you will see massive expenditure in these useless areas.”
