Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has an­nounced a sweep­ing re­view of State prop­er­ty rentals, de­scrib­ing the near­ly half a bil­lion dol­lars spent in fis­cal 2024 on leased build­ings as “dead mon­ey” that re­flects waste­ful ex­pen­di­ture and poor over­sight of pub­lic re­sources.

“Gov­ern­men­tal rentals, this has caused bil­lions of dol­lars to be spent with­out trans­paren­cy. The to­tal spent on the last fis­cal year alone, fis­cal 2024, was 493 mil­lion dol­lars. This is like dead mon­ey be­cause it is not like you get­ting any­thing from it back.”

Speak­ing at yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net brief­ing, Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so dis­closed find­ings from a Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion’s mas­ter list track­ing State prop­er­ty leas­es.