By Sue-Ann Wayow

THE government will be slashing costs on rental fees as it reassesses all its rental spaces, having spent almost $.5 billion in one year’s rental fee.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar disclosed on Thursday, millions spent on state rentals, discrepancy within  the system and essentially taxpayers dollars  being wasted.

“The total rent paid for properties leased by government, the total spent in the last fiscal year alone, fiscal 2024, was $493 million,” she revealed.

Persad-Bissessar during her post-Cabinet media briefing announced that rental contracts will be renegotiated based on current prices.

She also said to landlords that if they may not be willing to renegotiate for lower state prices, government will take their business elsewhere.

Producing a list, Persad-Bissessar also told landlords that while they may value privacy, they were collecting taxpayers dollars and citizens had a right to know where their money was going.

It was one of the several ways in which government would be cutting costs and channelling the funds to more meaningful projects, she said.

Persad-Bissessar said, “Billions of dollars spent without transparency, the government owns existing buildings and land and therefore investments should be directed towards upgrading existing buildings to appropriate standards and constructing our own buildings to house ministries and government departments.”

She said the millions spent on state rental was “dead money.”

Persad-Bissessar revealed that on the Ministry of Public Administration master list, government was paying over $21 million monthly in rent, there were 235 active leases and $260 million paid on those active leases.

She emphasised, “The rent paid by government ministries and agencies, do not match the figures on a master list of properties rented by government which is provided by the ministry out of public admin.”

Persad-Bissessar said, “Some of the properties for which rents were being paid, are being paid, are not even on that master list in the Ministry of Public Admin. I don’t know if you want to call them ghost rentals.”

According to the prime minister, there are large differences to what was actually paid to property owners and what was supposed to be paid again according to the master list kept at the Ministry of Public Admin. There is an unexplained variance of total rent paid for year 2024 of $208 million.

She said for the Judiciary, there was a variance of $21.8 million, the Ministry of Finance – $28.4 million, the Ministry of Health – $47.9 million, for the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) – $31.4 million and for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – $10.6 million.

Two companies GV Holdings and NJ Nahous Investments Ltd were paid over $15 million in rent annually but there were no current leases.

“And there is no Cabinet approval,” Persad-Bissessar added.

There were 193 properties leases which have expired  and the rent was on a month-to-month basis she said.

Persad-Bissessar said, “So we have no lease agreements to verify the rent amounts, the payment methods, and with respect to regulations regarding the properties, government’s responsibilities regarding maintenance, legal protection for government in any case of disputes and rights to the use of the property.”

“No one can confirm if these properties still meet the criteria for rental or possess the requisites  for fire health and safety and other areas of concern.”

Referring to former attorney general Faris Al-Rawi whose family is the landlord for government space, Persad-Bissessar said taxpayers paid $1.7 million per month.

Dissecting the number of rental spaces per area by cost per month, Persad-Bissessar disclosed:

“The data reveals the following. The most expensive rental per square foot in the country is of course in Port of Spain. It amounts to $23.81 per square foot,” the prime minister said.

“The bottom line is, it is cheaper to rent outside of Port of Spain.”

She again lamented about the concentration of state activity in Port of Spain.

Government’s short-term proposal would be to renegotiate leases and in the medium term, assess existing state properties that are being underutilised or not in use  for repurpose use.

Persad-Bissessar said, “The median rent if $7.23 cents per square foot… 55 properties exceed that median with some exceeding $20 per square foot.

She said, “That can’t be doing good business. It cannot be right. Especially when we have to find things to fix drains, to stop flooding, to help poor families to be able to eat a meal, fix schools, repair schools in the vacation, try to open that Debe campus, we need the money. And therefore we have to find ways of cost cutting.”