Minister: Same rules for re-entry for Beckles, Padarath

OPPOSITION Senator Wade Mark said the screening of Pennelope Beckles-Robinson to be PNM candidate for Arima, after being let in to TT owing to her status as TT’s UN envoy, was “a very disturbing development.” He was moving a matter on the adjournment in the Senate on Tuesday. The Government has denied any favouritism.

“Is the Government manipulating the guidelines, that they alone know what they are, to pick and choose who must come in and who must not come in?” Mark asked.

He said Minister of National Security Stuart Young had allowed Beckles to enter TT as an ambassador, after which she went into quarantine and subsequently screened virtually as a PNM candidate.

“So what was the real purpose of granting entry? Was it to facilitate screening? Or was it to deal with foreign relations matters, or matters pertinent to the mission in New York?

Mark asked who paid for the ambassador's trip to TT.

“The singular purpose was for screening purposes. So that was a political objective of the entry granted to the ambassador.

“If you are coming in to be screened as a candidate, using the cover of ambassadorial status, the question has to be asked is who is paying for that?”

Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat said Beckles was allowed entry under the same criteria and guidelines being used to facilitate the return of Princes Town MP Barry Padarath from the US.

He said a news report of June 16 had said Young had given Padarath the green light to return, even as a news report of June 19 said police are waiting to question Padarath whenever he returns.

“The ambassador returned to TT on her own strength with no assistance from the State and moved into quarantine,” Rambharat said.

“The exemption has been granted to both parties. One has returned on her own strength and has gone into quarantine, and the other is finalising and hoping to come in the coming weeks. There’s nothing to complain about.”