Trans­port Min­is­ter De­vant Ma­haraj says there are "fla­grant vi­o­la­tion" of the very rules set up for the ad­min­is­tra­tion of the for­mer PNM gov­ern­ment schol­ar­ships. Ma­haraj said that in a state­ment is­sued late yes­ter­day. There is an on­go­ing con­tro­ver­sy over the grant­i­ng of the schol­ar­ships un­der the for­mer Patrick Man­ning ad­min­is­tra­tion. Ma­haraj had filed a mat­ter for the con­sid­er­a­tion of the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion (EOC) and in a re­port sub­mit­ted to him by the com­mis­sion, it stat­ed there was dis­crim­i­na­tion in the awards. Chair­man of the EOC Pro­fes­sor John La Guerre said the mat­ter was still be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed, but it is to be re­ferred for con­cil­i­a­tion.

Ma­haraj al­so slammed for­mer Cul­ture Min­is­ter Joan Yuille-Williams for her role in the mat­ter. But Yuille-Williams pub­licly said there was no racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in the award of schol­ar­ships by the for­mer PNM gov­ern­ment. Ma­haraj said yes­ter­day that he re­ject­ed Williams' claim that then prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning's hand­writ­ten note on one of the ap­pli­ca­tion for the mat­ter to be han­dled qui­et­ly was min­istry pro­to­col, as was claimed by Yuille-Williams. "It seems as if this was the over­rid­ing mot­to for the dis­burse­ment of these funds," Ma­haraj added. "This was a bla­tant at­tempt to hide the facts from the glare of pub­lic scruti­ny."