The UNC must be asked when it is having internal elections and if it holds executive meeting, instead of calling for the PNM to say who paid for its Hyatt convention, says PNM general secretary Ashton Ford.
He spoke after the UNC’s deputy political leader Dr Roodal Moonilal said the PNM, as the alternative government, should in the interest of transparency say who paid for the Hyatt venue for its convention last Sunday.
Moonilal claimed the Government was aware a prominent businessman had funded it and that he had asked for five ministerial appointments in return.
Moonilal added: “The Parliament has a committee for party finance and campaign finance reform and since the PNM says it is the alternative government, as such, in the interest of accountability, I will be calling on the PNM to account for finances, including who paid for the luxurious Hyatt location and if bank accounts established to collect money are not notifiable or accountable to PNM’s Balisier House.”
On Monday PNM chairman Franklin Khan declined to reply to Moonilal’s query about the Hyatt but said the PNM had fund-raising committees and a “certain amount of funds.”
At the convention’s end Khan had specially thanked PNM deputy leader Rohan Sinanan and businessman Andrew Gabriel.
Sinanan yesterday said that was because he was a deputy leader in charge of policy and it was a policy convention and Gabriel is on the party’s events committee. Ford also said Gabriel was a member.
PNM public relations officer Faris Al-Rawi said the PNM paid its bills but declined to say who paid for the Hyatt and whether a businessman did, as Moonilal claimed, and also declined specific query about Gabriel and payment.
Al-Rawi said the PNM had a wide cross-section of business support and was “very fortunate to have Gabriel’s assistance through his volunteer activity in the party.”
He said: “We in the PNM all assist the party. We are a volunteer organisation financed by events, including our car raffles, parliamentarians’ salaries, members’ dues and other activities.”
He said the convention’s demonstration of “organised intelligentsia” probably frightened Moonilal.
Al-Rawi said UNC pre-budget rallies and Monday night forums have been replaced “by $300 million worth of advertising which Moonilal is aware is the subject of a report to the Integrity Commission.”
He said PNM leader Dr Keith Rowley, who had written to the commission about that, would speak on it.
Al-Rawi said the PNM had a long history of appointments that were self-explanatory for the Cabinet and Parliament and no horse-trading for posts applied. Moonilal should not judge the PNM by UNC standards, he said. (GA)