For­mer Pub­lic Util­i­ties min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les is call­ing on cur­rent Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath to break his si­lence over hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars spent on an ex­ec­u­tive re­treat host­ed by Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT).

Last week, the Sun­day Guardian re­port­ed that TSTT was in­voiced more than $436,000 on the re­treat held in To­ba­go from Jan­u­ary 16 to 18, based on doc­u­ments ob­tained by its In­ves­tiga­tive Desk.

How­ev­er, the state-owned telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions com­pa­ny said the fig­ures cit­ed for cer­tain in­voic­es were over­stat­ed by as much as 60 per cent.