Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday wants to know who is paying for the lavish New Year's Day party that Prime Minister Patrick Manning hosted at his official residence. And he wants Manning to say whether it was a PNM event. In a news release Monday, Panday said media reports suggest that the invitations to the party were issued by the PNM’s headquarters at Balisier House. "This means that this was a political party function held at the PM’s residence and paid for by taxpayers," he said.
"This lavish expenditure sends the wrong message to an already impoverished population. The use of taxpayer’s money to fete party members is an abuse of public office,” Panday said.
He demanded that Manning account to the people on the cost of the event and explain how such expenditure can be justified "at a time when citizens cannot get a bed at our hospitals and quarter of a million live in poverty.”
He noted that all this spending is taking place when homeowners are being burdened with "a new property tax, unrelenting crime, a recession, people are losing their jobs everyday and the Prime Minister is feting with the people’s money.
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