FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert’s statement that funds from the Heritage and Stabalization Fund (HSF) was used to pay contractors and suppliers of goods and services in 2020 has confirmed exactly what the Opposition has been saying and therefore the Opposition statements are not misleading.
This is according to Member of Parliament for Oropouche West Davendranath Tancoo who said it was Imbert who was misleading the public.
In a statement on Wednesday, Tancoo said the United National Congress (UNC) statements on the use of the funds was backed by three reports on the withdrawals from the HSF, laid in Parliament by Imbert.
Tancoo stated the first withdrawal from the Fund in May 2020, $1,844 million withdrawn was to meet capital and current expenditure including payments owed to contractors as at April 2020.
“Given the date of the application and withdrawal from the HSF, it is clear that none of these payments were for outstanding debts related to goods and service related to Covid relief.”
He added that none of the agencies which received the funding were involved in any Covid-19 relief effort in April 2020 or since and that the all money from the first withdrawal was shared between the Ministry of Works and Transport-$477.1 million, the Housing Development Corporation (HDC)-$687.2 million and the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDECOTT) -$680.1 million.
The funds taken from the HSF in the second withdrawal was split, with $860 million being sent to government ministries to cover outstanding bills for goods and services, such as rent, security, janitorial services and utilities. The remaining $500 million was allocated to other state agencies “to clear outstanding bills owed to contractors and suppliers,” Tancoo said.
And from the third withdrawal the money was partially to offset expenditure for Covid relief, but also to facilitate “ an urgent need for a cash injection to the Consolidated Fund to avert the potential for reputational risk arising from non-payment on account of insufficient funds.”
Tancoo said, “An unstated part of the withdrawal then, was applied to avert the cash flow crisis facing the Government in August 2020, which Imbert concealed from the country, so he could claim that the economy was doing well during the General Election campaign.”
He said Imbert fabricated the claim that the UNC has stated that withdrawals from the HSF were to only be used for Covid-19 relief.
“This is a blatant lie,” he said.
Tancoo added that recent revelations by the minister showed that outstanding payments were still to be made for Covid relief since last year.
In a statement on Wednesday, Imbert had said the Opposition’s claims were nonsensical since withdrawals from the fund can be used for expenditure items specified in the Annual Estimates of Expenditure and in the Appropriation Act. The minister stated that in 2020, the withdrawals from the HSF were used to provide funding for Covid-19 relief as well as payments to contractors and suppliers of goods and services.
The same applied in 2021, as the pandemic continues to have a severe adverse effect of Government revenues, Imbert said.
See related story below:
Imbert: UNC Claims That HSF Was Used Wrongly Is ‘Utter Nonsense’
