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  • 5 months ago
MP Colm Imbert is responding to claims made by Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath, that he racked up a $1.3M dollar bill during his short stint at the Ministry.

At a PNM press conference on Wednesday Imbert called Padarath a compulsive liar, and questioned how the quote for the works came to be increased.
Transcript
00:00MPCOM Imbert is responding to claims made by Public Utilities Minister Barry Podarath
00:05that he racked up a $1.3 million bill during his short stint at the ministry.
00:12At a PNM press conference today, Imbert called Podarath a compulsive liar
00:16and questioned how the quote for the works came to be increased.
00:21I'm intrigued because it seems that the budget was increased by $300,000 for the floor after I left.
00:28And when the UNC arrived, it seems the budget was increased.
00:32Another untruth was this nonsense about purchasing paintings for $30,000
00:38and then paying $35,000 to install them.
00:41That, too, is a lie.
00:43So I really don't want to get into this.
00:44I will send you the estimate that I approved.
00:47You can see for yourself what I approved.
00:50And I am telling you factually that when I left there on the 25th of April,
00:55the carpet was in, the blinds were in, the walls were painted, full stop.
01:01New government come in, they could have done whatever they wanted with that refurbishment project.
01:07Are you going to tell me they wait two months?
01:10They selected the paintings, not me.
01:13I was not involved in any of that.
01:15So I will send you the documentation.
01:18You can decide what you want to do.
01:19But I'm calling him a liar outside.
01:22Imbird also took Padarath to task for stating that the renovations would fatten Alrawi's
01:27building, noting that the building does not belong to Faris Alrawi.
01:31However, the property does belong to his in-laws.
01:34Imbird further noticed that the UNC paid much more to outfit the same building.
01:39That building was outfitted by the UNC during the 2010 to 2015 period at a cost of $70 million.
01:50That's another untruth I'd like to deal with.
01:53When the building was rented by the UNC, there was already a contract in place to do the outfitting
02:01of the building for, I think it was about $20 million.
02:05They canceled the contract and increased the price to $70 million.
02:08Go in your archives, you'll see it.
02:10It was a lot of controversial business.
02:12When a government rents a building like that, you don't rent it with all the fittings, fixtures
02:18and furnishings in it.
02:19You're renting a shell.
02:21And that's how they managed to spend $70 million.
02:24Wasted $70 million outfitting that.
02:26Wasted $70 million is a huge game.
02:26Wasted $70 million.
02:27Wasted $80 million is a huge game.
02:28Wasted $70 million is a huge game.
02:30That's how they're in-laws.
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