THE budget debate in the Senate on Tuesday was briefly interrupted because of a leak in the roof of the south chamber of the Red House, where the Senate meets.
The leak happened while Social Development and Family Services Minister Donna Cox was giving her contribution from a speaker's booth located close to the government's benches in the chamber. She was in the middle of her contribution when she stopped and looked at Senate President Christine Kangaloo. Cox told Kangaloo, "I am getting wet."
Kangaloo then advised senators the sitting would be postponed for ten minutes.
In January 2020, rain fell exposing a leak in the roof of the rotunda, days after a ceremonial opening of the renovated Red House. Expenditure on the roof, and other related carpentry cost $20.1 million, a Udecott document showed. A minor leak was also discovered in the Senate chamber. The contractor for the roof was Construction Services and Supplies Ltd. Udecott chairman Noel Garcia told Newsday then repairs would be covered by a one-year defect liability period.
When Tuesday's sitting resumed, Senate Vice President Nigel De Freitas advised Cox that she had used 16 of her allotted 40 minutes of speaking time before the interruption. De Freitas advised government members that they could make their contributions from their seats in their benches because of the leak over the speaker's booth that Cox was using. He advised Opposition and Independent senators they could continue to use the speaker's booth located behind their benches if they wanted. In the speaker's booths, the members are allowed to remove their masks while giving their contributions.
Resuming where she left off, Cox said her ministry is addressing fraudulent practices used by some people to try and access relief from the ministry which they are not entitled to. She said the ministry has been collaborating with officers of the Financial Investigations Bureau, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau and Fraud Squad, in this regard.
"Within the last 12 months there has been a 241 per cent increase in the number of reports to the TTPS (TT Police Service), with the majority of cases (151 per cent) involving senior citizens' pension," she said.
Cox said last year, 68 such cases engaged police attention. She added that as recently as August "cheques were issued to 1,955 persons who were confirmed dead." Cox said, "Some of the disability and pension cheques belonging to those 1,955 individuals are being cashed, the most significant, 81 per cent, being senior citizens' pension cheques."
Cox said a further 3,902 grants were identified for investigation.
"This represents a marked increase in fraudulent activities across all grants. I can advise that 165 cases are already under review by the Fraud Squad. A large number of these grant recipients are residing abroad and are therefore ineligible for support from the State."
She said the ministry is moving swiftly "to ensure that incidents of irregularities, wher
