00:00 I am very disappointed, hugely disappointed and I think that something has to be radically
00:07 wrong.
00:08 Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on the expenditure of $55 million on the recently outfitted DPP's
00:16 office which remained unoccupied and unused.
00:20 The government was being accused of not providing the way at all for the department to function.
00:27 But the government wants it to function.
00:30 And of course the government did the best that the government could do, the best that
00:34 the government could do, which was to find executive office.
00:40 That office was the executive headquarters of a bank.
00:46 Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard cited security risks for not occupying the
00:52 building.
00:53 The building is located in the most easterly part of Park Street.
00:57 Then we heard that there were security issues.
00:59 We spent money strengthening the security.
01:03 Bulletproofing here, this, that there.
01:06 We did all of that.
01:08 At the end of the day, at the end of the day, after we spent $55 million, a public servant
01:16 could decide I'm not going in there.
01:19 Something has to be wrong with that.
01:23 Something has to be wrong with that.
01:25 And as a taxpayer, I'm incensed that that could have happened in Trinidad and Tobago.
01:33 However, the Prime Minister says he has seen special branch reports which do not justify
01:38 the quote unquote waste.
01:40 As a public official, I too am exposed to matters of risk and personal security.
01:52 I do not know what the threat is to that particular office, which only exists when you're in that
01:59 office.
02:00 Because you use the roads, you use the market, you use the church, you're in your home.
02:08 How come $55 million of risk only exists in that corner of that building?
02:13 He said other government offices cannot be made to occupy the building as a solution.
02:18 And he questioned if one corner of the building is exposed to a threat or one floor for that
02:24 matter, does that mean the entire building is so exposed?
02:29 I don't want to get into any fight with anybody.
02:32 I don't want to get into any disturbing conversation.
02:34 I just find that this is unacceptable.
02:39 And the government did everything that the government could do.
02:41 And as I speak to you now, nobody has justified to me how this happened.
02:47 Dr. Rowley does, however, see it as an act of insubordination, saying the Judicial and
02:54 Legal Service Commission ought to answer to the public for the wastage.
02:59 That tells me that this whole question about who runs this country, who's in charge in
03:07 this country, should be of concern to the population.
03:12 Because if that could happen with that office, does this set a precedent for other offices?
03:20 A visibly infuriated Prime Minister eventually said he does not want to talk about it anymore.
03:26 Urvashi Tewari, Rubh Maraen, TV6 News.
03:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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