A claim was made yesterday by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley that the Minister of Social Development and the People, Dr Glenn Ramadharsingh, was disbursing huge sums of money without the required checks and balances.Rowley made the claim during a news conference at his office on Charles Street, Port-of-Spain.He was commenting on the recent decision of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to have the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) administered in three separate ministries.
"The Ministry of the People, in a very uncontrolled way, (was) disbursing huge sums of money without proper checks and balances, at the whims and fancy of the minister," he added.Rowley said that was being done "over the head of public servants who are required to determine who qualifies for that money." He said it was established that the Ministry of the People was on a political campaign to, basically, give away money to selected persons.He said the recipients were determined by the "political directorate."Rowley said he wanted to know if part of the budgetary allocation for the URP would be transferred to the Social Development Ministry and Ministry of the People to engage in such a campaign.
He said the minister was engaged in funding weddings and "all kinds of unchecked and approved (by public servants) expenditure, purely on the whims and fancy of the minister."Rowley said the full story would be told when the Government had to report to Parliament and when the auditor general presented her report to the Parliament.Rowley said he was concerned about the Office of the Prime Minister being authorised to disburse funds for the URP "is for political control and greater disbursements."Meanwhile, Ramadharsingh had denied any wrongdoing as claimed by Rowley.
In an almost immediate response, Ramadharsingh said: "All monies were being disbursed with the approval of the permanent secretary and the accountant in the ministry."He said Government was being frustrated by the bureaucracy to get the assistance to the people of the country.He said the Ministry of the People was set up to quicken the pace at which Government could deliver social services to the population.He said he was committed to provide services to the population and the Opposition was just concerned about the success of the initiative.Ramadharsingh said Rowley's claim was "empty and baseless." (RL)