NAR: URP and CEPEP get more $$ than corporations

THE COMBINED budget for the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) and the Community Environment Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP) is more that what is allocated for all 14 regional corporations. That was the charge yesterday by NAR’s political leader Lennox Sankersingh, when he addressed members of the media and supporters at the party’s national council meeting at Victoria Square, Port-of-Spain. Sankersingh said it was one of the reasons why the current Local Government document on reforming the sector will lead to nought. He said serious political will was also required, which the current PNM administration “does not have.”

He said there have been numerous reports on reforming the system dating back to the colonial days in 1952, but there has been little or no improvement. Sankersingh said it was also disheartening to know that over the years the budget for Local Government has consistently declined. He said in the ’70s and ’80s the allocation was between five and six percent of the annual budget, “and today it had decreased to between three and four percent.” He also charged that the combined budget for URP and CEPEP was more than the monies allocated to the 14 regional corporations. The deputy chairman of the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation also said that $1.2 million was allocated to the corporation’s development expenditure, “which equates to (the sum of) two CEPEP contractors. That is the kind of disrespect shown to Local Government, and if the minister is serious he should forget about the paper and take immediate action.”

Quoting from the ten-year plan, which is currently out for public comment, Sankersingh said if Local Government Minister Rennie Dumas was serious about reform, the process had to start now with the implementation of several measures proposed in the Municipal Corporations Act of 1990. He said every party spoke of decentralisation and decongestion in Local Government, but the situation never changes. He said the 1990 Act provided for the establishment of homes for the aged, establishment and maintenance of child care centres, distribution of Government forms and for Local Government bodies to promote physical plans by the ministry and central Government. Sankersingh said those things were never implemented, however, as no funds were ever provided for such undertakings. He called on Dumas to provide more relevant and competent staff for regional corporations, saying that there was no accountant or engineer among the 1,000 staffers at the CTTRC. He also appealed to the minister not to aim for “pie in the sky dreams,” but “do things that can be done now.”