by ADONIJAH

NOT ME, says George Payne!

The Member of Parliament for St Andrew vigorously asserted yesterday he had never received a consultancy during the tenure of the former Barbados Labour Party regime.

He also spoke out on behalf of fellow backbenchers in the previous Barbados Labour Party administration, Ronald Toppin, William Duguid and Louis Tull.

Payne was responding to statements Prime Minister David Thompson made Monday night in an interview broadcast live from the studios of the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation.

"Almost every backbencher and candidate of the Barbados Labour Party in the last election was receiving money via consultancy from the public purse. We had to bring those things to an end," Thompson charged then.

Payne, who warned the public to expect an increase in bus fares and "transportation costs", responded in a Press release: "Even if a few individuals received such consultancies for their expertise it is incorrect, improper, mischievous and misleading for Prime Minister Thompson to state as a fact that almost every backbencher and candidate of the Barbados Labour Party received such consultancies. I sat next to Louis Tull, William Duguid and Ronald Toppin, and I can say categorically that none of us received
such monies."

"He should name these people," Payne further added in a call to the DAILY NATION. "I want to make the point that I don't know what he's talking about."

On Thompson's announcements relative to increases in fuel, Payne said: "The increase in fuel prices is the platform and excuse for the increase in bus fares and transportation fares to follow. I notice my leader has made some comments and I endorse them. What I would say further is that his address was an apology for promises made and this is just the beginning of the apologies we
will hear over the next few months.

"He made promises without realising the implications," Payne continued. "We are certainly not going to see any of those
matters delivered in the short term."