The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration has plans to spend $95M to procure new vehicles for top government officials. It was Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Gail Teixeira, who made this revelation in the National Assembly this week.
She told the House that the vehicles handed over by the former A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) regime were in a deplorable state. Defects, she listed, include cracked windshields; stained, ripped seats; damaged radios; and incorrect tyre placements.
But Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Harmon, has spurned these statements.
“That is a totally erroneous statement. In fact, when we demitted office, all of the vehicles that were used by ministers were parked in the Office of the President – that it is now called – and the new ministers were there lining up and adjusting as if it was a vehicle market. They were so impressed by the condition of these vehicles…Those vehicles were in tiptop condition. In fact, they’re still being used now, so I would want to know what Ms. Teixeira is talking about,” Harmon said this morning during a virtual press conference.
He added that when the Coalition came into office back in 2015, the vehicles that were being used by former PPP Ministers were in an atrocious state. A dead rat was discovered in a vehicle that former Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson took over, he said.
“A dead rat! So, you can imagine what concern they had for government vehicles. I can say to you that all those vehicles that they (current ministers) took over are in tiptop condition,” Harmon reiterated.
The vehicles that the PPP intend to purchase, will be used by the President, Dr Irfaan Ali; the Prime Minister, Mark Phillips; and the Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo.
