Gail Alexan­der

The sec­re­tari­at of the re­cent Uff Com­mis­sion of En­quiry in­to the con­struc­tion sec­tor and Ude­cott cost the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter $14.2 mil­lion, ac­cord­ing to Gov­ern­ment's Low­er House leader Roodal Mooni­lal.

Mooni­lal was re­spond­ing in the Low­er House yes­ter­day to an Op­po­si­tion ques­tion from Op­po­si­tion Leader Kei­th Row­ley on the fi­nanc­ing of the Uff probe.

Row­ley had sought the to­tal cost to the tax­pay­er of the probe and the to­tal cost in­curred by each state agency, qua­si-state agency, Nipdec and cen­tral gov­ern­ment which par­tic­i­pat­ed in the in­quiry. The query was posed to the Prime Min­is­ter. Mooni­lal, who replied on be­half of the PM, said the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter was re­spon­si­ble for all sec­re­tari­at costs of the com­mis­sion which amount­ed to $14.2 mil­lion. Mooni­lal said the OPM was not re­spon­si­ble for costs in­curred by oth­er state agen­cies.

Row­ley asked whether the Gov­ern­ment was say­ing that a ques­tion about the to­tal cost of the Uff com­mis­sion-re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for which falls un­der the OPM-was not to be an­swered by the OPM. Mooni­lal said in­for­ma­tion sup­plied on the is­sue not­ed that the OPM was re­spon­si­ble for the sec­re­tari­at cost and was not re­spon­si­ble for the cost of oth­er state agen­cies which par­tic­i­pat­ed in the probe. Ear­li­er, in the ses­sion, Mooni­lal had clashed with Row­ley when Row­ley had sought fur­ther in­for­ma­tion on a ques­tion to Min­is­ter Stephen Cadiz.