Corporation defends $500,000 Tunapuna Week spending

The Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion has de­fend­ed more than $500,000 ear­marked for Tu­na­puna Week, in­sist­ing the ex­pen­di­ture does not come from its De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme al­lo­ca­tion or af­fect fund­ing for es­sen­tial mu­nic­i­pal ser­vices.

In a news re­lease sent yes­ter­day, the Cor­po­ra­tion re­ject­ed claims by Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) coun­cil­lors that the cel­e­bra­tions re­flect mis­placed pri­or­i­ties while com­mu­ni­ties face in­ad­e­quate in­fra­struc­ture and ba­sic ser­vices.

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The con­tro­ver­sy prompt­ed UNC coun­cil­lors and al­der­men to boy­cott the cel­e­bra­tions, in­clud­ing the Civic Awards cer­e­mo­ny. Mi­nor­i­ty Leader Prakash Barath ar­gued that the mon­ey could have fund­ed de­vel­op­ment projects in at least three UNC-con­trolled elec­toral dis­tricts.