PM erects privacy wall at Phillipine home

The Prime Minister has replaced intricate wrought iron fence on the perimetre walls of her Phillipine home with brick and mortar.

Workers were spotted outside her home on May 17 plastering and painting over the recently bricked-up sections of the wall.

Asked by Newsday if the measures were as a result of a security threat, Kamla Persad-Bissessar said it was done for additional privacy.

Persad-Bissessar spent her first few days as Prime Minister working out of her home.

During this time, members of her cabinet were seen entering and leaving the property, presumably following meetings with her.

At the time, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Barry Padarath said both Whitehall and the Diplomatic Centre, the Prime Minister's official residence, were in disrepair and unfit for her to occupy.

Flooding, mould and other infrastructural concerns were raised at Whitehall and a contract has been awarded to repair the building. Padarath said it would take about $5 million to repair the Diplomatic Centre following a tour of the property.

Udecott representative and head of household at the Diplomatic Centre Wendy Rocke agreed there was work that needed to be done, but she said it was liveable.

The Prime Minister's decision to work from her home has been met with mixed reviews, some endorsing the move in the post-covid19 era, where working from home was once the norm, while others expected the head of government to occupy state offices.

Persad-Bissessar subsequently defended her decision during her first post-cabinet media briefing on May 8, held at the Red House, the country's seat of Parliament. She said she intends to work out of facilities in Port of Spain, a cabinet room at the Ministry of Agriculture's building in Chaguanas, a cabinet room upstairs at the San Fernando Teaching Hospital, from Tobago and her home.

"Whichever one is more convenient at the point in time, we'd choose that one."

Persad-Bissessar said one of the reasons for this is to share governance throughout the country.

"The country does not begin and end at the lighthouse...yes we'll cross the lighthouse and come up here but there are other parts of the country we need to service and we do go into those areas, we can meet, when we use these facilities in various parts of the islands, we can meet people from there as well. I am not and we will not be a government for Port of Spain, of Port of Spain and by Port of Spain."