Warner on toys for the children: "So what?"

Jack Warner acknowledged on Monday that he asked for money from contractors but stated that he used the money to buy toys for children.

Warner made the point at a cottage meeting at Warner Village, Chaguanas. He was responding to a Sunday Express story that stated Warner received the money from firms doing business with the government while Warner was the works minister.

“I didn’t ask for me, I ask for the staff and to buy toys for the children for the Christmas, so what?” Warner told supporters at the cottage meeting.

The Express report said Warner wrote several private businesses asking for donations to help pay $1.9 million for a Christmas party at the Centre of Excellence and that the donations were sent to JML Quality Services, a company in which he had private interests. “They so want to use people that they leak the request hoping it would do damage to Jack Warner, it ain’t even make a dent,” Warner said last night. 

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Monday night asked Warner if the allegations are true and called on him to clarify the matter. He has said he would respond to at “the appropriate time”.