Did Prime Minister Patrick Manning have to spend US$19,000 an hour of taxpayers' money to inform and sensitise the prime ministers of Jamaica, Belize, Suriname and Bahamas to his unity proposal?

This was Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday's response to Manning's statement at a news conference yesterday, that he (Manning) had gone on an information mission to several Caribbean countries, and not to collect signatures in support of his unity plan.

Said Panday: "Mr Manning could have phoned the Jamaican Prime Minister (and others) and said 'we are floating this idea, what do you think?'. It is a modern world, he could have e-mailed. Or he could have sent his Foreign Affairs Minister, or his minister responsible for Caricom affairs. But no, Mr Manning has to spend US$19,000 an hour (hiring a private jet to travel around the region)."

Responding to Manning's statements that he planned to meet with him on the issue, Panday said as Leader of the Opposition, it was his duty to meet with Manning if he (the PM) so requests.

"I shall listen to him...We have all been asking, even the Jamaica Prime Minister, what this unity plan is all about. Nobody seems to know. I may be the first to know, so I am honoured," Panday satirised.

However, Panday said he was convinced the proposal for economic and political union was a distraction designed to draw attention away from the forensic Commission of Enquiry into corruption at UDeCOTT, because the name of a senior member of the Government was being called in connection with this.

Claiming that UDeCOTT was being given time to destroy the evidence, Panday said: "We have heard nothing about who the other members (outside of the Chairman) of the Commission of Enquiry are. So it may well be that Prof (John) Uff would have to huff and puff by himself."

When he announced the chairman on July 22, Leader of Government Business Colm Imbert had stated that the appointments of the other three members were expected to be completed "within the next two weeks". Imbert also stated that the initial meeting of the commission would take place in Port of Spain somewhere between September 8 and 26.