A war of words has erupt­ed be­tween Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen and Port-of-Spain May­or Chin­ua Al­leyne over the fi­nan­cial state of mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions.

The dis­pute fol­lows a Face­book post by the may­or on Sat­ur­day, in which he claimed that all 14 mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions are fac­ing se­vere fi­nan­cial con­straints.

In his state­ment, Al­leyne de­scribed what he called a “fis­cal fi­as­co” stem­ming from the 2026 Bud­get, de­clar­ing, “All Cor­po­ra­tions are short of mon­ey to pay pub­lic ser­vant salaries and/or NIS con­tri­bu­tions.”