JOHN’S, Antigua, Sept. 12, 2014, CNS – Former Antigua and Barbuda prime minister Baldwin Spencer has taken the Gaston Browne administration to task over what he describes as exorbitant sums being spent on another former prime minister, Lester Bird.
The Government has approved five staff members for Bird who was appointed Senior Minister in the cabinet but does not have a ministerial portfolio.
Spencer told a local radio station that in hard economic times, such an arrangement is an example of the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party feathering its own nest.
“I have absolutely nothing against the individual Lester Bird but I think that it is totally wrong, not only in the context of our difficulties and the fact that they find it easy to send home people who can least afford it and to be able to find monies to do that sort of thing. It is outrageous,” Spencer said.
A cabinet document shows the approval of salaries and allowances for two aides, two secretaries and a housekeeper for Bird at a cost of about EC$16,000 per month.
Spencer said such behaviour is not unusual for Labour Party administrations.
“When Lester Bird was prime minister of this country he took from the taxpayers EC$10,000 per month as a housing allowance. And when the UPP got there and I discovered that situation I said no, it is wrong, it is unfair, I cannot engage in that. Yes I agree that under the circumstances we don’t have a statehouse as it were but when I saw that they have it at $10,000, it was unfair to the taxpayers of this country,” Spencer added.
The Browne-led Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party defeated Spencer’s UPP in general elections held on June 12 this year.
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