By ANDRE BAGOO Monday, September 6 2010

THE GOVERNMENT’s four-day Tobago retreat was yesterday estimated to have cost $300,000 by Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister Sandra Marchack.

Speaking with reporters at a press briefing at the Coco Reef Resort and Spa at Store Bay, Tobago, Marchack, who is the head of the Public Service, also revealed that the retreat was funded through individual ministries and not solely by the Office of the Prime Minister.

“What has happened is that each ministry is responsible for their own costs,” she said. “So we don’t have an overall cost.”

Asked to estimate the total cost, she said: “It would probably be in the vicinity of $300,000. About that.”

The four-day workshop saw Government ministers and their spouses, Parliamentary Secretaries and MPs attend the workshop. Press Secretary Garvin Nicholas on Saturday said all spouses accompanying ministers bore their own expenses. Several spouses were spotted on the premises of the Coco Reef Resort and Spa, which is a scenic beachfront hotel nestled near the south-western tip of Tobago.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday publicly apologised for an incident where members of the media were escorted out of the hotel during heavy rain last week after instructions were given to hotel staff by junior communications and security staff at the Office of the Prime Minister.

“I want to say again I am sorry that you were put out of the hotel. Again I had no knowledge . . . It was not my intention or any of our intentions to exclude you,” Persad-Bissessar said. She also apologied for late press briefings.

“And again I apologise to you. You had to wait on occasions to get the briefing but we were involved in very intense dialogue. The dialogue was ongoing and people forget the time.

“We return to Port-of-Spain fully mobilised, re-invigorated for our collective duty in the name of the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” Persad-Bissessar said.

She said she was confident the workshop will improve the quality of governance under her administration and better enable it to serve the people.