And while that is a new example of the oldest game of political leveraging - the PUP allege that the UDP is also pulling a page from the dirty tricks playbook by using public funds to for political ends. The allegation is that over 2 million surplus dollars from the education budget is being disbursed for educational assistance for those who pledge to support the UDP in this campaign.
Yesterday the Minister of Education said they did come in under budget - but there';s no money in the public coffers:...
Hon. Patrick Faber, Deputy Prime Minister
"We are winding down the financial year, the ministry goes through an exercise to see where funds have not been spent and we try to channel those funds to areas that we feel are important. We have recognized that there is the potential for that kind of savings given the line items. But as you know, even if you can find it in the budget where it is, if you don't have it in the government coffers, you can't spend it. So whoever is saying that we are going to spend 2.13 million; that's absolutely not the case. In fact, what we were trying to do with the monies that we could have found, even though we realize fully that the money is not in bank; in fact the FinSec has said that, is to buy some vehicles, some very needed vehicles for the Ministry of Education. The last fleet of vehicles that our district centers got was in 2008 or 2009, thereabouts. And so we were told by the Ministry of Finance that those monies are not there, so we simply can't spend it."
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