PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Oct 14 2015 – Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley is promising Trinidad and Tobago that he will only travel in “the air if necessary” after he accused his predecessor of racking up helicopter bills totaling six million dollars.
Rowley, contributing to the TT$62.8 billion budget debate in the Parliament on Tuesday night, said that Kamla Persad Bissessar occupied helicopter riding time of 636 hours, 415 missions at a cost of more than six million dollars.
“I give the long suffering people of Trinidad and Tobago the assurance that I will travel on the ground and over water. I will not be in the air unless it is absolutely essential and necessary.” Prime Minister Rowley said.
“We cannot be wasteful in a time like this,” Rowley told legislators, adding that “and I think it is extremely wasteful for the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago to fly for 636 hours in helicopters in this country.
“I am saying that kind of expenditure ought not to be on the backs of the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” he said, wondering if the use of the helicopters by Persad Bissessar was in any way linked to another project involving a contract with Bell Helicopters, for supplying this type of equipment to Trinidad and Tobago at a cost of TT$500 million.
