No PNM-UNC squabbling for funds

LOCAL GOVERNMENT Minister Jarrette Narine yesterday predicted there would be no quarrelling between PNM and UNC local government bodies over the allocation of funding to each body. Speaking with reporters following the swearing in of the new Port-of-Spain City Corporation at Port-of-Spain City Hall, Narine said: “The fighting for funding is with the budgetary allocations, and that is with the Ministry of Finance because each corporation gets their funding out of the national budget, and it’s not the Ministry as a matter of fact. We have improved from the last UNC budget, $6.5 million, and last year 2003 budget has gone to $28.7 million. So the Government has given about four times more than what was allocated in the UNC’s last budget. So that’s an indication that we are serious about Local Government.”

The Minister said Government remains committed to Local Government reform, and a draft policy document on this matter is being drafted. Narine added that once the document is completed it will be laid in Parliament.  Narine dismissed suggestions that CEPEP was taking over some of the duties of local government. He believed there was “a better calibre” of local government representatives on this occasion and announced that a local government training seminar will be held next month at the Rudranath Capildeo Learning Resource Centre in Couva. The Minister said he had no favourites for Mayor of Port-of-Spain. “I have to work with anyone,” he stated. Belmont East councillor Joel London, who has reportedly been tipped for mayor, said he had received no such indication from Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Incumbent mayor Murchison Brown declined to say whether he would be re-elected. Brown, Lorraine Holder, Tenea Reece and Farris Al-Rawi were sworn in as aldermen during yesterday’s ceremony. Al-Rawi is the son of Junior Trade Minister Diane Seukeran.