$465.9M Green Fund not utilised

The Green Fund has not yet been utilised because the regulations have not yet been promulgated, according to Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Utilities and the Environment, Earl Nesbitt. Nesbitt was speaking before the Joint Select Committee on Government ministries, statutory authorities and State enterprises, chaired by Senator Parvatee Anmolsingh-Mahabir. The Green Fund was established in 2000 and is fuelled by 0.1 percent tax on the gross sales of companies doing business in Trinidad and Tobago. The purpose of the fund is to enable various agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to apply for finance to carry out environmental conservation projects. The fund is currently worth $465,932,063.86. However no disbursements have yet been made from the Fund.

Senator Wade Mark asked why the process to activate the fund is taking so long.  Nesbitt replied that a technical committee reported in 2003 that the original Green Fund Act did not provide for enough accountability and transparency measures and recommended that the legislation be revisited. Since they could not ignore the recommendations, they modified the legislation in 2004, and were waiting for the regulations to be promulgated. Mark was baffled, saying that the original Act provided for a management board comprising members from different sectors of the national community, regular mandatory probes of accounts by the Auditor General, as well as required annual financial statements to be submitted to Parlia-ment. “Where is the lack of accountability and responsibility,” asked Mark However it was Fitzgerald Hinds who responded to Mark saying that it was the technical committee, and not Nesbitt that formulated that opinion.