Kamla's NY trip to cost taxpayers $.4m
By —Joel Julien
Story Created: Aug 14, 2010 at 1:03 AM ECT
(Story Updated: Aug 14, 2010 at 1:03 AM ECT )
PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar's ten-day trip to the Big Apple will cost taxpayers just over $400,000, Press Secretary Garvin Nicholas stated yesterday.
"The budgeted expenditure of the Prime Minister and her party's ten-day trip to New York, USA, is approximately $380,000, plus a contingency fee of US$4,000," Nicholas said in a media release yesterday.
Persad-Bissessar left the country yesterday out of Piarco Airport on a commercial flight. She is scheduled to return to Trinidad on August 22.
The entire first-class section of the plane was booked to accommodate Persad-Bissessar, members of her Cabinet and their families who were aboard the flight, a Caribbean Airlines source said yesterday.
It is not confirmed whether the $400,000 price tag includes the other members of the entourage.
Persad-Bissessar was scheduled to visit the State University of New York in Albany, the Polytechnic Institute Public Symposium in Brooklyn, a Public Meeting at Maracas, Queens, and a fund-raiser and dinner at Liberty Avenue in Queens yesterday.
She is expected to be interviewed by India TV Network and visit Shiva Temple at Richmond Hill for a reception today.
Persad-Bissessar has been criticised for the timing of her second State trip overseas. But Nicholas said the trip would be of benefit for the country.
"By meeting face to face with members of these organisations, the Prime Minister hopes to convince them to play a greater role in the development of our twin-island State, which it is hoped will redound to the benefit of the population of Trinidad and Tobago, more substantially than the two summits held over the last two years at an estimated cost of some $3 billion," Nicholas said.
Persad-Bissessar was invited to New York to be a special guest at the 30th India Parade scheduled for tomorrow and a celebratory dinner carded for Monday