Ameen says son’s Japan trip was privately funded

Da­reece Po­lo

Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen has sought to dis­pel ques­tions over her de­ci­sion to trav­el to Japan with her son, Je­re­mi­ah, af­ter pho­tos she shared on so­cial me­dia showed the pair to­geth­er dur­ing her vis­it, prompt­ing spec­u­la­tion over whether pub­lic funds were used to fi­nance his trip.

Ameen is in Japan on an of­fi­cial vis­it at the in­vi­ta­tion of the Japan­ese gov­ern­ment, which she said is cov­er­ing the cost of her trav­el.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia, Ameen said, “The trip is of no cost to the gov­ern­ment of T&T. I am here on the in­vi­ta­tion of the gov­ern­ment of Japan and my ex­pens­es are fund­ed by Japan. All of my son’s ex­pens­es such as flight, ac­com­mo­da­tion, meals etc are ful­ly cov­ered pri­vate­ly by my­self from per­son­al funds.”

She said her son does not ac­com­pa­ny her to of­fi­cial en­gage­ments and that the im­ages she shared were tak­en out­side of her of­fi­cial du­ties.

“As a work­ing mom, I have long shared my work along­side my ‘Mom Chron­i­cles’ and I con­tin­ue in that vein of trans­paren­cy. He does not ac­com­pa­ny me to of­fi­cial en­gage­ments. The im­ages shared are af­ter the work­ing day is done.”