Government Senator Lavern King has raised questions about why Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves hosts meetings with diplomats at his private home in Gorse, although the government gives him EC$153,000 annually to run an office.
“Do you know that the Leader of the Opposition receives a subvention of $153,000 per annum that goes towards … office space and so forth?” King said on the ruling New Democratic Party (NDP) “New Times” programme on NICE Radio.
“And I’ve been making a very keen observation by the current leader of the opposition. It appears to me that he’s having his meeting with dignitaries and so forth at his home,” said King, who is also minister of state in the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Innovation, Digital Transformation, and Information
“And when you receive money from the state to fund an office, I would want to believe that these meetings of diplomats and so forth should be happening at that office space,” she said.
The senator said some of the “times news” have resorted to being “propagandists” of the opposition Unity Labour Party (ULP).
“But these are legitimate questions that I think journalists need to be asking of the Leader of the Opposition. Are you receiving the subvention? This is taxpayers’ money and $153,000,” King said.
“Where is the office space? Because everybody has been seeing the pictures coming out with some of these official meetings happening at his residence,” said King, who is the NDP’s public relations officer.
“I will not say that that is where the office is … But I would definitely want to contend that there should be some clarification on that, be it that this funding is available for office space.
“Where exactly is the office of the Leader of the Opposition? Because you’re receiving this subvention… Why are the diplomats meeting with you at your home in Gorse?”
She said that when Prime Minister Godwin Friday was leader of the Opposition, he held his meetings at his office in Kingstown.
“Many of those official visits were held at his office, the Leader of the Opposition’s office. They weren’t held at his home in Bequia,” King said.
“I can say to you, I know for an absolute fact that that is the amount of money that is given… And I do know that the money has started to be paid. I do know that. So those are facts.
“So, where’s the money, the subvention money, going? … I don’t know if the office is at Gorse. I don’t know,” King said.
“But I would believe that we need to have a clarification about where the office space is and how the funding is being used.
“… because we exist in a government structure, if people want to go to the Prime Minister’s Office, they know where. If people want to go to the Leader of the Opposition’s office, they must know where.”
The senator said that “crazy thing about this is that the way in which this fellow ran the administration when he was Prime Minister, he alone, yap, yap, yap, yap, you could see that the Unity Labour Party, really and truly does not exist.
“It is him alone. There’s no future on that side of the fence at this point. And he is just there, talking, talking, talking,” King further said of Gonsalves.
“… you haven’t even been able to publish where your office space is. I mean, I don’t know, but I would think that if you’re receiving a subvention of $153,000 that, at the very minimum, you should let us know where the office space is and where exactly the rent for that office is being paid.”
The ULP was voted out of office in the Nov. 27 general elections after 25 years at the helm.
Gonsalves was the only member of the party to win or retain a seat when the voters handed 14 of the 15 parliamentary seats to the NDP, which had been in opposition since 2001.
Meanwhile, Gonsalves responded on Monday to King’s comment on his weekly show on Star Radio, which is owned by the ULP.
The opposition leader’s comments suggested that he had thought that the comments were made by Laverne Gibson-Velox, Minister of the Family and Gender Affairs, Persons with Disabilities, and Labour.
“She doesn’t know I also meet people at the office of the leader of the opposition, which is located in the building, a new building, which we put in the complex in the yard by the ULP office and there’s support staff if I’m not there,” Gonsalves said.
He said the support staff is “is headed by Mr. Ferdinand, who is the research officer to the Office of the Leader of the Opposition.”
Gonsalves continued:
“As to where I hold meetings, Lavern can’t tell me where I must hold meetings, whether I should hold meetings with persons at my residence. She wants to come up and have a meeting with me. I have a well-appointed library, and so on, she could come and see. She can even borrow books from me if she wants.”
However, on learning that the comments were made by King, Gonsalves said that the senator could also come to his house.
“I know Lavern King mommy. But I mean, that is the kind of infantile stuff. I certainly can’t have the people from the American Embassy who came to me and have lunch with them at the office of the Prime Minister — Office of the Leader of the Opposition,” Gonsalves said.
“I would hold my meetings wherever I want to hold them, and where all the persons, the visitors, have no problem, in meeting me where I suggest?” he further stated, adding that he was “not suggesting that we hold a meeting in some little watering hole somewhere…
“Why thing is worrying them, eh? That’s why some of their crazy saying that Ralph is running a government in exile up at Gorse, or, alternatively, they call it the locale, the centre for undermining the government,” he said, referring to the location of his private home.
“And she, by asking that silly question, she’s bringing more attention to the fact that people come up there all the time come see me,” he said.
“They’re throwing words at some public servants and tell them that they know who come to see me. Whappen? They have camera down the bottom, looking to see who drive up,” Gonsalves said, apparently referring to the NDP’s headquarters, which are located near to the ULP headquarters on Murray’s Road, Kingstown.
“They got people maccoing (spying)? That’s where we reach now, after four months, five months? Yo’ ha people going maccoo who come and see the leader of the opposition,” Gonsalves said, referring to the NDP’s time in office.
“But the Leader of the Opposition is a well-appointed office, and we, our support staff is always available there, and I do see people there, and very often, but not exclusively, on the Mondays and Wednesdays when I come to town,” Gonsalves said.
