An Opposition Member of Parliament has accused a Government minister of deliberately using his office to encourage his own constituents to sign up for a $6 000 000 Government-funded programme but leaving hundreds of other Barbadians out of the offer.
Member of Parliament for St Thomas Cynthia Forde is accusing Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Patrick Todd of discriminating against poor people in her parish whilst offering similarly impoverished people from his constituency of Bridgetown a fast track to Government’s Housing And Neighbourhood Upgrading Programme.
According to Forde, more than 200 households in the village of Allen View and surrounding districts could improve their lot from a grant that Government had earmarked for 600 households but none had been contacted, yet Todd had been circulating across his constituency one-page pamphlets signed by him as Minister of State in the Ministry of Housing, encouraging them to visit the National Housing Corporation and sign up for the programme.
“I am saddened when I can receive correspondence from a resident of The City who could provide me with a copy of a letter like this and ask me what is happening with the people in St Thomas,” she said.
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