RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The UNC has called for an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the al­leged mis­use of pub­lic funds for po­lit­i­cal cam­paign­ing in Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh’s St Joseph con­stituen­cy.

In a state­ment, the par­ty con­demned the dis­tri­b­u­tion of min­istry-brand­ed wa­ter bot­tles and cam­paign-style cards fea­tur­ing Deyals­ingh in PNM at­tire to res­i­dents of a town­house com­plex in St Joseph.

“It has come to our at­ten­tion that these wa­ter bot­tles were part of a Min­istry of Health ini­tia­tive, with Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment be­ing of­fered an al­lo­ca­tion of 100 each. While Op­po­si­tion MPs re­ject­ed this bla­tant at­tempt at elec­tion­eer­ing un­der the guise of pub­lic health, Min­is­ter Deyals­ingh ap­pears to have used his al­lo­ca­tion to cam­paign with­in his con­stituen­cy, a clear abuse of state re­sources,” the UNC said.

The par­ty filed a Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion (FOI) re­quest to ob­tain de­tails about the cost of the project, the sup­pli­er, and the pro­cure­ment process.

“This reck­less spend­ing comes at a time when hos­pi­tals lack es­sen­tial med­i­cines, and sup­pli­ers of goods and ser­vices to the Min­istry of Health re­main un­paid. It is ob­scene that Min­is­ter Deyals­ingh would pri­ori­tise elec­tion­eer­ing over pro­vid­ing crit­i­cal health­care ser­vices to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” the UNC stat­ed.

A let­ter was al­so sent to the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion re­quest­ing an in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

“We have al­so writ­ten to the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion, de­mand­ing an im­me­di­ate in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to this ap­par­ent vi­o­la­tion of elec­tion laws and state re­source mis­man­age­ment. The UNC will not stand idly by while pub­lic funds are used to fi­nance the PNM’s cam­paign.”

The par­ty urged the pub­lic to take ac­tion.

“We call on the peo­ple of St Joseph and the wider na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to re­ject this bla­tant mis­use of tax­pay­ers’ mon­ey and to hold the PNM ac­count­able for its con­tin­ued abuse of pow­er,” the UNC said.

Min­is­ter: Bot­tles have been dis­trib­uted since last year

Deyals­ingh re­spond­ed to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia, stat­ing that the ini­tia­tive was in­tend­ed to pro­mote healthy lifestyles.

“There is no po­lit­i­cal mes­sage. The bot­tles have been giv­en out since last year,” Deyals­ingh said.

He added, “As Min­is­ter of Health, I have been en­cour­ag­ing the pop­u­la­tion to lead a healthy lifestyle. I wrote to all 41 MPs of the Low­er House in No­vem­ber 2024 to col­lect, in the first in­stance, 100 TTMoves wa­ter bot­tles to dis­trib­ute to their con­stituents. The let­ters were de­liv­ered at a sit­ting of Par­lia­ment to­geth­er with a sam­ple bot­tle.”

He pro­vid­ed a list of con­stituen­cies that col­lect­ed bot­tles, in­clud­ing Ch­agua­nas East, To­co/San­gre Grande, Moru­ga Table­land, Cou­va South, Pointe-a-Pierre, Ch­agua­nas West, Oropouche East, Laven­tille West, Tu­na­puna, Ma­yaro, and Point Fortin.

Deyals­ingh al­so said bot­tles were giv­en at health fairs, blood dri­ves, and oth­er pub­lic events. The min­is­ter said he al­so did Christ­mas cards so peo­ple could reach out to his of­fice.