00:00The opposition leader in her budget response raised a red flag about the 50
00:05million dollars allocated to the office of the Prime Minister for
00:09entertainment and the hosting of functions. In responding to her claims
00:13of fetting with the public purse, the Prime Minister in his budget
00:17contribution defended the allocation instead accusing the People's
00:22Partnership of spending much more during their 2010 to 2015 term than his
00:28government did from 2015 to present. During the Standing Finance Committee
00:33the Finance Minister today revealed his intention to prove the same.
00:38I have today instructed the Central Audit Division to audit the expenditure at the
00:44office of the Prime Minister in terms of entertainment and other expenses such as
00:50maintenance of the Diplomatic Centre and so on for the period 2010 to 2015 and
00:56the period 2015 to 2024 and I shall lay the report of the Central Audit Committee
01:03in the Parliament so that we can see exactly what was spent. He promised the
01:08report within three months. The Minister was asked if the 67 million dollars
01:13allocated by his ministry for salaries and the cost of living allowance took
01:19into consideration the rollout of the Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority
01:23the TTRA. The TTRA is mobilizing, it's recruiting, it's fleshing out its
01:30organizational structure and so on. It's dealing with the persons who applied for
01:34transfer and so on. There would still be an enforcement division of public
01:40servants so what the ministry officials did is provided for the full year. If
01:46around the mid-year we do not need this full amount because the TTRA is fully
01:53operational which we expect it will be by the mid-year then this amount will be
01:58adjusted. He admits to this challenge faced by his ministry retaining
02:04competent staff and filling vacancies as he says prospective applicants don't
02:10seem to be attracted to the terms and conditions offered. Sometimes when you go
02:15out you just don't get the quality of staff you're looking for because people
02:21can earn so much more in the private sector so it's a little problem for us
02:25but we're gonna keep at it because we need legal officers, IT specialists and
02:30criminal investigators in the Inland Revenue Division. When the item of house
02:35rates appeared again this time to the tune of $100,000 under the finance
02:41ministry, Coleman Byrd was asked for a proper detailed explanation as to what
02:48exactly is house rates. How long it has been outstanding and whether or not this
02:55payment will wipe out all arrears because that is how you described it on
02:59a previous occasion. I will most certainly provide you that information I
03:06will urge the public servants to clear this off so no longer appears as a line
03:11item. Between half a million and 1 million dollars of public monies it was
03:17revealed is lost annually via pension payments when pensioners die and their
03:23relatives fail to inform the state and MTS was in for commendation by the
03:29minister for saving his ministry from sabotage. I must also commend the
03:34security services for the great work they did in 2024 to catch somebody who
03:43tried to sabotage the air conditioning system in the Ministry of Finance head
03:48office and attempted to flood all the floors of the ministry. That person was
03:54detected by our security, apprehended, arrested and charged. It was announced
04:01that the finance ministry made its last 15 million dollar annual payment to the
04:05central bank for the Eric Williams financial complex. That means the state
04:10now owns the complex. Urvashi Tiwari, Rupnur Rai, TV6 News.
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