Colm, Barry clash over spending on paintings, renovation at ministry

A heat­ed po­lit­i­cal clash has erupt­ed be­tween Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath and his pre­de­ces­sor Colm Im­bert, over al­leged lav­ish spend­ing at the min­istry while Im­bert was there.

The ten­sion arose af­ter Padarath claimed Im­bert $1.3 mil­lion was spent to ren­o­vate an of­fice for Im­bert at One Alexan­dra Place af­ter he was shift­ed from the Fi­nance Min­istry to Pub­lic Util­i­ties by for­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young in Feb­ru­ary.

Speak­ing dur­ing Mon­day’s mo­tion to adopt the re­port of the Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee, Padarath raised eye­brows when he claimed he in­her­it­ed a hefty ren­o­va­tion bill al­leged­ly com­mis­sioned by the for­mer min­is­ter, point­ing square­ly at Im­bert.