– Opposition Leader says in response to claims that APNU+AFC returned badly damaged vehicles
In an attempt to justify the budgeting of $95M for the purchase of vehicles for top-government officials, Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Gail Teixeira had said that a number of vehicles returned by the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) were in poor shape, but Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon said the claim is far from the truth.
“When we demitted office, all of the vehicles that were used by Ministers were parked in the Office of the President, and the new Ministers were there lining up as though it was a vehicle market. They were so impressed by the conditions of these vehicles,” Harmon said in response to a question posed by journalist during a virtual press conference on Friday.
Teixeira, during the consideration of the Budget Estimates and Expenditure, said the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had no other choice than to allocate finances for the purchase of vehicles for President Irfaan Ali, the Prime Minister Mark Phillips and the Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo due to the deplorable state in which the State’s vehicles were left in by the APNU+AFC Administration.
“When former Ministers submitted their vehicles we found cracked windshields, the seats were damaged and stained and ripped up; we don’t know who did that,” Teixeira had explained but Harmon said the vehicles that were assigned to President David Granger and Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo were left in “tip-top condition.” He said the same can be said of all of the other vehicles that returned by the former ministers.
In describing the claim as “erroneous,” the Opposition Leader, who served as Minister of State under the APNU+AFC Administration, challenged the Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs to provide the evidence or allow for the vehicles to inspected by the press.
Reflecting on the period of transition in 2015 when the APNU+AFC had defected the PPP/C Administration at the General Elections, Harmon said that not only were the vehicles in poor shape but a dead rat was found in the vehicle used by Teixeira.
“Minister Patterson took over a vehicle from her, and when we started cleaning it, there was a dead rat in it; a dead rat. So you could imagine what concern they had for government vehicles,” Harmon recalled.
As he continuously brushed aside the claim made by Teixeira, the Opposition Leader maintained that all of the vehicles handed over by APNU+AFC Officials were in tip-top condition.
