Barbados is sending a ten-member Government delegation, including Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, to an environmental conference in Samoa at a cost of almost a quarter of a million dollars.
The local team for the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which runs from September 1 to 4, will also include Minister of the Environment and Drainage, Dr Denis Lowe and three permanent secretaries.
According to WEEKEND NATION investigations, Cabinet approved the team and the money to cover the travel last Thursday. The decision also approved and covered the cost of Prime Minister Stuart’s official visit to New Zealand, which will take place immediately after he leaves Apia, the Samoan capital.
In addition to Stuart and Lowe, also representing Barbados at the Pacific Ocean conference will be Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office Sonja Welch, Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of the Environment and Drainage Edison Alleyne, Acting Permanent Secretary in the Division of Energy and Telecommunications Jehu Wiltshire, as well as acting director of the Coastal Zone Management Unit Dr Lorna Inniss.