— Coalition doled out $2M from MARAD for gospel concerts, Min. Edghill informs House

PUBLIC Works Minister, Juan Edghill on Friday informed the House that some $2 million of sums allocated for the operations of the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) was channelled to gospel concerts under the Coalition Government.

The Coalition was forced to leave office due to mounting international pressure after a series of attempts to rig the March 2, 2020 elections failed.
Addressing the House during his budget presentation, the Bishop turned minister said aside from the unholy channelling of money for gospel concerts, one minister of the then Coalition Government had tapped into MARAD’s account as though it were a “slush fund.”

According to Minister Edghill, every government ministry provides access to funds for travelling and other “subsistence” required to do the government’s work and it is difficult to fathom how in the normal scheme of things a minister would dip into other government reserves to pay for activities that were most likely already budgeted for.

MARAD falls under the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, which has since been renamed the Ministry of Public Works by the current government. Former Ministers of Public infrastructure under the Coalition Government, Annette Ferguson and David Patterson are under investigation in connection with a gift-giving scandal in which they personally benefitted
Both Patterson and Ferguson were said to be recipients of expensive jewellery and other gifts from several agencies that fell under their remit. The gifts were all purchased with taxpayers’ money.

“The benefits of the brooches and the bed sheets and the laptops and the unending list of items that were bought from agencies for Ministers Ferguson and Patterson while they served are well documented and it is a shameful act,” Edghill told the National Assembly.
Referring to Ferguson’s earlier presentation criticising the government’s proposed $383.1 billion budget, Edghill said, “I understand the bitterness of the Honourable Member.”
Edghill also criticised the former Public Infrastructure Ministers for seeking to take credit for the foundation that the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) had laid prior to demitting office in 2015.

He drew specific reference to the Sheriff-Mandela Expansion Project, for which he said the opposition Members of Parliament were attempting to take credit. Minister Edghill made it clear that the same road project was conceptualised by the PPP/C and pursued prior to 2015.

“Myself and Dr. Ashni Singh had to look at each other and smile,” the Public Works Minister said, adding: “Mr. Speaker, that was a 66-million US dollar IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), and I am sure the person would have signed that loan; the signature would be Ashni Kumar Singh.”

The minister also referenced the Ogle-to-Diamond bypass as well as the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), which were all conceptualised under the former PPP/C Government, but had suffered significant delays under the Coalition Government.