Agriculture Ministry's SUV cost $400k, comparable to other SUV's like the PRADO: Bharath

Porsche Cayenne

At the end of the fiscal year in 2010, the Permanent Secretary in the Food Production Ministry recommended to minister Vasant Bharath that the ministry buy a new vehicle to replace the 6-year-old one that the ministry owned at the time.

The vehicle that was eventually bought was a Porsche Cayenne SUV, which is the ministry's official vehicle.

Now, the leader of the opposition has a problem with that.

"A Porsche Cayenne is an ultimate luxury SUV vehicle which identifies with ostentatious expenditure- even in the private sector. And for that reason you see very few of them on the road," Rowley told reporters, adding, "It has no place in a Ministry."

Bharath responded by saying that Rowley is creating a storm in a teacup. "Extravagance and luxury are related to the cost of something," he said, noting that the vehicle cost just over $400,000 because ministries and government agencies are exempt from motor vehicle taxes and duties.

Bharath told the Express newspaper: "This is not my personal vehicle. I have never driven this car nor used it for private purposes. If I attended Sir Ellis Clarke's funeral, I would have done so in my capacity as a Minister of Government," he said.

Rowley said he first the minister using the car when he attended the funeral of Sir Ellis Clarke. The Ministry's driver was the chauffeur.

Bharath said unlike former PNM minister he would never go to a personal or private function in the vehicle if it is not Ministry business.

Bharath insisted that the vehicle is not "by any stretch of the imagination" a luxury. "It is a basic vehicle, a four-wheel-drive and it is at the bottom of the range of this particular brand. It is not outside of the price range of the cars that the Ministry purchases all the time," he said.

Bharath noted that it is within the price range of other models suich as the Toyota Prado or the BMW X5 which cost over $500,000.

The minister said his ministry had made a request for two of the Prados that the previous government bought for the Summit of the Americas but none was allocated.

He said on that basis the ministry sought to get another vehicle. However he made it clear that the vehicle is not for his exclusive use.

"I am suggesting that I am well within the limitations placed on me by the Permanent Secretary in terms of what we can do and what we can't do with vehicles. And I have never abused that," the Express quoted the minister as saying.