http://www.tntmirror.com/2011/10/23/i-tried-to-help-allI tried to help all
By Irene Medina - October 23rd 2011 12:19 PM
Joan Yuille-Williams denies discrimination in scholarships FORMER Minister of Community Development Culture and Gender Affairs Joan Yuille-Williams has denied that the Ministry’s Financial Assistance for Studies Programme discriminated against persons of Indian descent and says the Government tried to render assistance to all those who were in need and applied.
Yuille-Williams, a deputy political leader of the PNM, was questioned by TnT Mirror on the allegation by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar that only seven percent of the recipients of the bursaries were citizens of East Indian descent.
“I don’t know about the numbers,” she said, “but as far as I know all those who applied would have got something.”
Yuille-Williams said she did not get personally involved in the payments since that was handled by the public servants and payments were made not to persons but their educational institutions. Payments for persons studying abroad were not handled by the Ministry but by the Trinidad and Tobago’s foreign missions and embassies through the Comptroller of Accounts.
The former minister said the bursaries, which were first announced on page 29 of the 2003 Budget Speech as the “Community Development Scholarships Programme”, were never secret and were advertised in a brochure outlining Government services which was distributed by the Ministry of Social Development.
She admitted, however, that applicants were not required to submit application forms but applied by letter and that the interviewing committee, which included two members of the Ministry of Public Administration’s Scholarship and Advanced Training Division, Maureen Manchouk and Rosalind Kanhai-Trotman, conducted interviews, requested whatever additional data were required and made recommendations.
Some persons who did not qualify, like Adanna Joseph, the daughter of retired Brigadier Peter Joseph, were rejected despite the fact that they had been recommended by Members of Parliament. But despite Joseph’s rejection, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar made an announcement in the House that she had been a recipient. This has since been denied by way of a media release by the young woman’s father, Brigadier Peter Joseph, former director of the now disbanded Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT).
Public servants close to the Scholarship Fund, which is now under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister, supported Yuille-William’s claim that it was not discriminatory.
According to one Committee member, “Single parents or young people who had little hope of funding their education sought assistance from the Ministry and were either rejected or called in for an interview. They had to walk with documentation that they had been accepted to pursue studies that were not being offered at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, or the region,” she said.
TnT Mirror has learnt that among the many recipients of the much maligned bursaries was Humming Bird awardee Veera Bhajan, who was born without arms, and whose courage touched and ambition to study law at the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados caught the attention of the then Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who recommended that the Ministry cover the cost of her legal studies.
This promise was made to her in 2004. In 2007, Manning, though his Community Development Minister, made good his promise to provide financial support to Bhagan, and during a graduation ceremony for the Women in Harmony Programme at Queen’s Hall – one of the Ministry’s several social programmes – Yuille-Williams presented Bhagan and nine other scholarship recipients with cheques.
This was confirmed to the TnT Mirror by Bhagan’s mother, Ramdai, who spoke briefly on the issue, since she said she was busy “cleaning up for Divali” celebrations, which is observed by the Hindu community on Wednesday Oct. 26.
She said, “Prime Minister Manning made a promise, when Veera received her National Award, he promised to give her a scholarship, and he kept that promise.”
The protective mother, who accompanied her daughter during her two years at Cave Hill, said she did not want her daughter’s name dragged into the controversy. Ramdai also had all her expenses paid through the grant because Yuille-Williams felt that because of Veera’s special needs, she needed a caretaker. She has since graduated from the Hugh Wooding Law School and is now attached to the Office of the Attorney General.
Ramdai confirmed that there was sound accounting for the monies spent, adding that a “detailed statement had to be given to the Ministry.”
“It was not as if we were given cash,” she said, adding that “the money went to the school.”
Rosalind Kanhai- Trotman refused to comment on the issue, while Manchouk said she had only been at the Ministry for a short period. The programme has since been transferred to the Office of the Prime Minister with $5.5 million allocated in the 2012 Budget.
