Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was forced to work from home on what would have been her first of­fi­cial day in of­fice yes­ter­day, due to what Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath says is the “dys­func­tion­al” and un­fit state of White­hall in Port-of-Spain.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia out­side White­hall yes­ter­day, Padarath ex­pressed con­cern over the phys­i­cal con­di­tions of the build­ing.

“This fa­cil­i­ty is not a func­tion­al fa­cil­i­ty. There are chal­lenges here. The per­ma­nent sec­re­tary just shared with us that there are parts of the build­ing that can­not be used be­cause there is a lot of flood­ing, there are health is­sues with re­spect to mould,” Padarath said.