The press today asked PM Briceno about government spending on new ministerial rides in a time of what should be strict austerity. Our reports say that 400 grand has been spent, which the PM kinda confirmed, while making the point that it was spent judiciously:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"We have acquired 5 vehicles for a total of about $360,000 and the reason that we did that is because simply the previous government sold all of the good vehicles and the vehicles that they left are junk that you can't use. Many of us are using our own private vehicles. I am using my own vehicle. I have not had the government buy a vehicle for me simply because we don't have the money, so we cannot be buying luxurious vehicles. When I hear of people in the opposition and some in the media are saying that we have bought vehicles that are costing over 200,000, that's an absolute lie. We have been buying these small vehicles like the Rav4s, but in the Ford brand which are cheaper than Toyotas, because we need to keep the cost down. Some CEOs have decided to buy their own vehicles and they are paying for that, it's not the government, with the vehicle allowance is what they use to be able to pay for their own vehicles. We do not have the money to splurge and we are doing everything possible to ensure that the little that we have we spend it where it's needed most and it's not in vehicles."