The estimated budget for the Baby Care Grant has been inflated by almost $100 million.
This was the view of Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley as he spoke on Tuesday night during a cottage meeting at the Union Claxton Bay Secondary School.
While low-income mothers said they were grateful for the $500 a month Baby Care Grant, Rowley said Government had overpriced the programme and was using it in its election campaign.
The grant was given a budget allocation of $120 million last September.
Last week, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar distributed the first batch of her baby care cards at the Diplomatic Centre, an initiative that was announced in the 2014/15 national budget.
The grant was created to assist households earning less than $3,000 to buy baby care supplies.
In an interview after the distribution, Persad-Bissessar said the grant cost $100 million.
Rowley said based on statistics provided in Government’s Social Sector Investment Programme 2014: Poverty Reduction, the programme only needed $20 million a year.
Within the report, he said, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) reported a poverty rate of 14.8 per cent based on a 2009 household survey.
With the grant targeting underprivileged babies, he said it should focus on 15 per cent of the 20,000 annual birthrate.
Showing his calculation, he said that should equate to approximately 4,000 babies and with each recipient collecting an annual sum of $6,000, the cost of the programme should be $24 million.
He added: “You know how much money is budgeted for that programme? A programme that should really at best only be using $20 million is $120 million. That means they are catering, according to them, that every single baby in the country would qualify for a $6,000 baby milk grant, but the programme is for underprivileged newborns that should only cover 15 per cent of the newborns.
“The number of newborns in this country is approximately 20,000. In fact it is just below 20,000 so the amount of money they budgeted for the babies, is for all the babies in the country and let me tell you what is happening there.
“So $20 million would be used on those who qualify, the rest of it will be used on those who don’t qualify and those who are in campaign mode.”
Rowley said the Government was inviting people to UNC meetings to get baby milk grant.
“We saw the lady on television who said when they asked her how did she qualify and applied, she said she went to a UNC meeting and she was asked to come down to the Prime Minister’s house to get baby milk,” Rowley said.
He said even Government’s Conditional Cash Transfer Programme was being used to entice voters and its members were giving out food cards.
Calling the food card “cash on plastic”, he said there were gainfully employed university graduates who were buying groceries through the programme.
Recalling the last budget debate, he said when he called on ministers to explain their requested allocations, none of them could explain the figures in the country’s costliest budget.
Despite the Opposition’s queries, Government used its parliamentary majority to pass the budget, he added.