Government Senator Laurel Lezama benefitted from a total of $300,000 in State financial assistance from the Culture and Gender Affairs Ministry for the pursuit of a Bachelors degree in law and politics from the University of Westminster Regents Campus in London in 2005 and 2006.

This was disclosed in the list of grant recipients from ministry that was made public on November 9, through legal action by the Indo-Trinbago Equality Council (ITEC).

In an interview with the Express last evening, Lezama said that she had to go through a rigorous screening process before her application was approved and thought the financial assistance offered by the ministry was public knowledge.

Lezama said she did not receive a single cent from the money personally.

’It went to the university. It didn’t cover all of my expenses,’ Lezama said.

Asked about concerns raised by ITEC that the grants amounted to political discrimination, Lezama said, ’I don’t believe that it was specifically to party people at all. When I went to the interview, I did not know any person there. ... It was people who clearly had needs. I spoke to one young lady from Debe, a slim, slim girl of East Indian descent. From our conversation she clearly was not any form of political activist.’

Paige De Leon, who is the communications manager with the Office of the Prime Minister, received $173,640 in financial assistance in pursuit of her Masters in International Diplomacy at a university in Paris, France, in 2005 .

De Leon told the Express yesterday she had applied to several institutions including the ministry before her application was approved and, like Lezama, said ’no money was ever given’ to her directly.