It is alleged that the account was set up with a “senior government
official” and a “personal assistant” as signatories
to make withdrawals.
Other information suggests that funds were pumped into the account
from disbursements and grants from the Culture Ministry to ghost
organisations similar to the ghost gangs in the URP.
It was also alleged that withdrawals were being siphoned-off by
the two signatories, while a PNM operative in Central Trinidad was
involved in cashing in on the “cultural ghost-gang cheques”.
Yuille-Williams soon found herself in Manning’s doghouse when
it was discovered that one of the signatories had been making withdrawals
without the knowledge or consent of the other.
The fallout from the discovery of the stolen loot led to Manning
losing confidence in his long-time bosom buddy Yuille-Williams,
to the point where he no longer appoints her to act as prime minister
whenever he has to be out of the country.
A senior official at the Community Development, Culture and Gender
Affairs Ministry took revenge on the Mirror by pulling the plug
on all advertising in the newspaper.
It did not stop the Mirror from “bussing” another hot
story on a former aide of Yuille-Williams, Greer Callender, being
jailed in Grenada on fraud charges.
Last Tuesday in the senate, Mark called on the prime minister to
investigate the existence of “a private bank account at FCB
Independence Square with over $2 million in the name of Phillipa
Richards, who was once the personal assistant to the Minister of
Community Development and Gender Affairs (Yuille-Williams)”.
Mark also asked Yuille-Williams if she was aware that special adviser
in her ministry Dr. Stanley Plowden “has been receiving large
sums of money?”
Yuille-Williams later denied Mark’s allegations, or that she
was a signatory to any account saying: “If he did say that
my name was on some account (or) or I was signatory to any account
… I did not hear him say it, but people said he might have
said it … let me get up firmly and deny that.”
Senator Mark also called on government to bring in the Fraud Squad
and Anti-Corruption Bureau to look into the allegations.
Williams said she was not a signatory to any such FCB slush account.
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