UTT paid $119,627 to accomodate Manning's spirtual adviser at guest house: Report

A report in the Sunday Express claims that the spiritual adviser to former prime minister Patrick Manning, lived in a secluded guest house, leased by the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), in the Heights of Aripo for 10 months following the PNM victory in the 2007 general election.

The paper said its report is based on expense reports that it has obtained showing Rev Juliana Pena booked into the guest house on December 13, 2007 and stayed until October 31, 2008. The Express said Pena lived there with her young companion, Anastacia Mendes. The UTT acquired the property for visiting professors and other university staff,

The Express said it saw one invoice from March 2008 that had the name of the university's former chairman of Board of Governors and President, Prof Kenneth S Julien, showing the "client" as Rev Pena and Mendes.

The paper said another invoice, dated November 4, 2008 describes the Pena and her companion as as guests of the "Office of the President".

The paper said the cost of Pena's "heavilty-subsidised" ten-month stay was $119,627.36, citing UTT documents. It said the UTT settled the amount in three payments, "the first via a banker's draft for $37,942.36 in July of 2008, the second via a US cash payment of US$13,000 and the third via a US cash payment of US$175."

It said the last two US cash payments were made in May and June of this year following media enquiries about Pena's stay at the private university-leased facility. The US$13,000 cash payment was made on May 17, 2010 and the US$175 was paid in June of this year, the paper said.

The PNM was voted out of office on may 24, 2010.

The Express said there is no explanation for why Pena was given the discounted staff rate since she was neither a UTT employee nor a visiting professor.

The University leased the property - The Queen's Counsel Happy Valley Lodge - from Consolidated Services Ltd, which is owned by attorney Bruce Procope, in February 2006 at a total cost of $8.42 million at the monthly rate of $50,000.

Pena was at the centre of a controversy over the construction of a $30 million church at the Heights of Guanapo. Former Prime Minister Patrick Manning was accused of using state funds for the church, which was abandoned just before the election. He has always denied that.

Reports say Pena left the country recently, claiming she would never return since she was badly treated in Trinidad and Tobago.