To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Ver­nel­la Al­leyne-Top­pin in­curred a to­tal of $41,177.84 in costs at the Hy­att Re­gency, Port-of-Spain, from June 2010 to date. Top­pin gave the fig­ure in re­ply to an Op­po­si­tion ques­tion in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day.

She said when she be­came min­is­ter in June 2010, she had to spend an av­er­age of four nights a week in Trinidad for gov­ern­ment meet­ings, in­clud­ing Cab­i­net joint se­lect team ses­sions and Fi­nance and Gen­er­al Pur­pos­es Com­mit­tee, plus her min­is­te­r­i­al du­ties at of­fices in both is­lands.

She said no ac­com­mo­da­tion was pro­vid­ed for her in Trinidad at first, even while she main­tained res­i­dence in To­ba­go, as she still does. She said the min­istry there­fore cov­ered her ac­com­mo­da­tion and meal ex­pens­es dur­ing Ju­ly 2010. She said the min­istry al­so cov­ered phone, In­ter­net and ground trans­port costs. Top­pin said the Hy­att costs in­clud­ed:

• Ac­com­mo­da­tion-$20,734.12;

• Meals-$15,828.42;

• Phone-$359.42;

• Oth­er ex­pens­es, in­clud­ing In­ter­net and trans­port-$4,255.88.

Re­ply­ing to an­oth­er Op­po­si­tion ques­tion, leader of gov­ern­ment busi­ness Dr Roodal Mooni­lal said the gov­ern­ment-is­sued cred­it card at the Prime Min­is­ter's Of­fice was not in the Prime Min­is­ter's name. He said the bal­ance on the card at March 16, 2012 was $2,307.40 and there were no trans­ac­tions on the card at March 2, 2012.