Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath has bro­ken weeks of si­lence over the con­tro­ver­sial Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT) ex­ec­u­tive re­treat, dis­put­ing claims that it cost the State more than $400,000.

While re­ject­ing the fig­ure as in­flat­ed, he ac­knowl­edged rep­ri­mand­ing the board over the mat­ter.

Padarath was speak­ing at the launch of de­silt­ing works in El So­cor­ro yes­ter­day, where he ad­dressed the is­sue for the first time af­ter re­peat­ed at­tempts to ob­tain a com­ment fol­low­ing the ini­tial March 8 re­port.