December 13, 2016 Politics

Citizensreportgy.com

What will be the budgeted sums provided for constitutional reform and governance? The question was posed by Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira, to Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo.

Nagamootoo said $44M has been allocated to governance. He added that the Governance Department has not yet been staffed.

Teixeira, consequently, asked how the $44M was being spent. “You are allocating $44M to do what in governance?” she asked.

Nagamootoo said the budgeted $44M is for two directors of Governance being put in place.  The identities of the directors were requested by Teixeira.  Nagamootoo disclosed the name of only one director. He said Tamera Khan, Legal Advisor/Coordinator, has been appointed from March 2016. Teixeira asked how Khan was recruited. Nagamootoo stated that Khan was transferred to the Office of the Prime Minister’s Office after the Department of Governance was moved under his purview from that of Minister Raphael Trotman, who was once Governance Minister.  Nagamootoo also disclosed that Khan’s salary is $420,000, with a duty allowance of $20,000, travel allowance of $5,000 and entertainment of $45,000.

Questions by Opposition Parliamentarian, Anil Nandlall, on whether Khan was related to Nagamootoo’s press secretary, Imran Khan, were disallowed by House Speaker, Dr Barton Scotland.

On the question of constitutional reform, Nagamootoo stated that the $44M, which he said was for governance, will also fund initial work in that area. He added that another $40M has been pledged by Non-Governmental Organisations for work on constitutional reform.