Jensen La Vende
Senior Reporter
Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Philip Watts says he submitted a file to Attorney General John Jeremie for advice for what he described as wanton wastage at the Youth Ministry led by his predecessor.
He said his former political friend Foster Cummings sanctioned "obscene wastage, fiscal irresponsibility and reckless mismanagement" at the now defunct Ministry of Youth Development and National Service.
Watts, who was once Cummings constituency chairman, before switching sides and beating him out of the La Horquetta/Talparo seat, said Cummings awarded contracts to political friends.
“These contracts were not approved by the accounting officer in the ministry, but it was approved by the former minister. Mister Speaker, I have taken that file and given it to the Attorney General.”
He said there was a surge of short-term employment from January up to the eve of the April 28 General Election. He said what was found was nothing short of scandalous duplicity and calculated deceit.
He added that there were 61 short-term contracts awarded with his advisors saying some were unqualified for the position they got.
Some of the contracts were awarded to former education minister Anthony Garcia as a technical advisor and youth training for $23,000 monthly. Former chairman of the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation Kwasi Robinson was earning $22,000 a month. Former senator Laurel Lezama-Lee Sing was contracted as a programme coordinator for youth in business at a cost of $22,000 monthly.
“I was told by the accounting officer that they never saw Mrs Lee-Sing Lezama on the job for a day,” Watts claimed.
Ndale Young, a former senator, was earning $16,000 a month as the technical coordinator at the ministry and in charge of the Youth Career, Education and Health caravan.
Watts said he saw a time sheet showing that Young was not coming to work for days. He disputed a social media post that Young was fired saying he fired himself because he was not showing up for work and abandoned the job.
“What we see here is a glaring pattern of misuse of public funds for partisan gains masquerading as governance. It is nothing short of disgraceful. What we see here is so disgraceful, somehow what we see here is short-term contracts were rewarded for a selected few in pursuit of electoral advantage.”
Watts claimed the Youth Career, Education and Health caravan, engaged in excessive spending without delivering any value starting off with an annual budget in 2023 for $148,000 that ballooned to $400,000 per caravan in April.
In two caravans on the Easter weekend, the ministry was billed over $800,000 with the cost disaggregated for entertainment, rental of maxi-taxis, catering and other costs.
He added that the delivery of service for the two caravans is now being questioned by his ministry as there were no maxi-taxis present yet there were invoices for them.
Commenting on the Youth Apprentice and Homestead Programme (YAHP), Watts said it was Cummings “selling dreams to youths” describing the programme as a disaster.
He said the candidates were to be trained by the University of Trinidad and Tobago and were to be given two acres of land, a starter home and a $20,000 grant. To date that promise has yet to materialize as the first cohort, who graduated in 2022, majority are still awaiting what was promised to them.
Watts said the first group had 200 people enrolled with three-quarters of that graduating. He said to date, only 50 homes commenced and eight completed. The other 42 homes remained under construction with the rest awaiting their homes and grants.
He added that there are two other batches to be rewarded, one that graduated in January and another to graduate in September.
Watts called for an audit of the El Dorado Girls Youth Camp as an auditorium remains incomplete with 75 per cent of the work done yet most of the contracted sum of $28 million plus a $7 million variation already paid.
Efforts last evening to contact Cummings were unsuccessful.