July 23, 2010
Where is Juliana Pena? Did she use State $$ for travel?
http://jyoticommunication.blogspot.com/2010/07/where-is-juliana-pena-did-she-use-state.html
On Thursday night Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar raised questions about the whereabouts of Pena, who is linked to the controversial church at Guanapo.
"The woman seems to have disappeared into thin air," Persad-Bissessar said. She noted that according to immigration records Pena left the country on February 6 and returned five days later from a trip to Venezuela.
"And since then she should be in the country and is not, then did she abscond?" the Prime Minister asked.
She also raised the question about expenses for all Pena's travels. "A trail of e-mail correspondence suggests that Ms Pena may have been collecting funds from our foreign embassies to fund her jet setting and globe trotting lifestyle," Persad-Bissessar said.
(Juliana Pena was the "spiritual advisor" to the former Prime Minister, Patrick Manning.)
March 10, 2012
I NEED MY SISTER: PM defends relative’s foreign travel costs
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/I-NEED--MY-SISTER-142214755.html
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has defended her sister’s travelling costs even as new figures reveal that Vidwatie Newton has cost taxpayers on trips to Brazil, London and Australia.
The Office of the Prime Minister spent $338,329.19 for Newton to accompany Persad-Bissessar to Australia from October 19 to November 6, 2011.
The figures were contained in a note prepared for Cabinet obtained by the Sunday Express.
Newton, described as travel assistant to the Prime Minister, was given a per diem equivalent to a public servant.
In London, from the period October 19 to 21 and again on November 3-5, she was allowed accommodation of £350 a day. Her per diem was £145 a day totalling $9,422.00. In Dubai from October 21-23 she was given a accommodation valued at US$278 a day, which totalled US$834 (TT$5,362.62).
Her per diem was US$155 a day which totalled $1,993.30. In Perth, Australia, for the period October 24 to 30, no accommodation expenses were incurred as the delegation was accommodated by the Australian Government. Her per diem was US$155 a day which totalled $6,976.55. In Hong Kong from October 31 to November 4, an allowance of $23,089.52 was paid for accommodation with a per diem of US$155 a day which totalled $3,986.60. On Friday, it was revealed that Newton incurred expenditure of $233,600 as a member of Persad-Bissessar’s delegation to India from January 4 to 16.
The 14-member team from the office of the Prime Minister- which included Persad-Bissessar’s husband Dr Gregory Bissessar and a personal assistant Mila Loredo—totalled $2,341,891.
Yesterday Persad-Bissessar defended her sister’s travel costs as much as she’s had to defend her own during her 22 months in office. “I think any person who does the kind of job that I do would requires someone to assist them personally,” said Persad-Bissessar as she defended Newton’s travel cost on her January journey to India. Describing as “political mischief” the signalling out of Newton’s travel sum, the Prime Minister said she relies on her sister when she travels. “It has been done before my time. She travels with me,” said Persad-Bissessar. “I trust my sister. I feel comfortable with having her handling my personal matters like food and medication. It is vital. It allows me to spend more time on my job,” she said.
“Indeed, I am advised that former prime minister (Arthur N R) Robinson would take his son as his travel assistant,” she told reporters at the Maha Sabha Phagwa celebrations at the Tunapuna Hindu School yesterday.
Earlier, during a brief interview with the Sunday Express, she said she needed Newton to manage her busy schedule.Newton has travelled frequently with Persad-Bissessar during her time in office.
She’s accompanied her on several trips to New York, Washington, to the UK, to Brazil and recently Australia and India. Last September, Persad-Bissessar, in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Express said Newton was not employed or paid by the government. She said then: “I do give her some of my own money because she has to live.”
“She was gainfully employed for many years and I am very grateful to her for helping me. I can trust her with my personal things: my food, my clothing. She came for the internal election and within weeks when Mr Manning called the general election I had to say ‘come back’. She came immediately and has been here ever since,” she told the Express on September 25 last year. “It’s just political mischief they are up to as usual,” she said yesterday. The Prime Minister leaves today on a state trip to Panama.
"Some of my own money" apparently includes public funds.
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