PM Mottley assures Barbadians no public money caught up in issue

Come Tuesday, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn will deliver a Financial Statement on the National Vaccination Fund to Parliament. 
Prime Minister Mia Mottley made this announcement yesterday, while stressing that no money from the public’s purse was given to Radical Investments to procure Covid-19 vaccines for this island.
During a virtual press conference from New York, the PM sought to address calls for clarity from Opposition parties on the case where Radical, which is operated by project developer Mark Maloney, has brought a case against Good Vibrations Entertainment- a purported supplier of vaccines-, for millions of dollars paid for the procurement of one million doses of the Astra Zeneca vaccine. None of these inoculations were delivered.
Both Opposition Leader Bishop Joe Atherley and President of the Democratic Labour Party Verla Depeiza have levelled criticisms at the government on the issue, and are demanding answers.
To address these and the public’s concerns, Mottley said the Finance Director had been asked to prepare a report on the state of the vaccination fund.
“I've asked the Director of Finance to prepare for laying in Parliament on Tuesday morning, a full statement of that vaccine fund, which this morning he already indicated to me that as of, September 24, the National Vaccination Fund collected the sum of $11,339,866.33, of which $7.8 million was transferred to the Consolidated Fund on March 26, 2021. As of March 24, 2021 $500,000 was spent on the purchase of vaccines. There were only two purchase of vaccines;- $300,000 for Pfizer and $200,000 for Chinese Sinopharm vaccines, and that the majority of money has not been spent, and largely because we have been lucky, but we're not past the worse,” she stressed.
Terming the issue as “a red herring”, Mottley said it was intended “to distract at the very time that we want Barbadians to increase their vaccination levels”.
Speaking on the island’s current vaccination campaign, she outlined that while the curfew will be extended, the 6 p.m. curfew on Sundays will now be similar to the rest of the week 9 p.m.
“In the course of the last week, I'm happy to report (as of Friday) we are already overall 10,000 vaccines or more, but of the first dose, only about less over 6000, and we don't know what will happen today. As a result, we will move the curfew, from six o'clock on Sundays to nine o'clock, because where is it that the virus is causing problems- it is not in the public spaces, but in our homes, and the communities around the homes,” she added. (JMB)