Minister to local govt reps: Spend money wisely

YVONNE WEBB

Corporate Trinidad, contractors and volunteers would have saved this country some $150 million, through their involvement in the national clean-up campaign, Rural Development and Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein said yesterday.

Addrressing a Local Government practitioners workshop at San Fernando City Auditorium, Hosein said, at a time when money was in short supply, he was extremely grateful for the support the campaign he initiated when he assumed the ministry was able to attract. He told mayors, chairmen, aldermen, councillors and other administrators representing the 14 municipal corporations that, in these stringent times, there must be accountability and transparency in everything they did. “We are going into a new fiscal year, this is the reason why I called you here today, and we must spend the money allocated to us, very wisely.”

He said each of the 143 councillors was entitled to have a project in their respective districts, and urged the mayors and chairmen to ensure that was done so the economy could grow. He asked that the projects be done in consultation with the people who elected them, satisfying their needs rather than the councillor wants. Earlier, the Contractors and General Workers Trade Union (CGWTU) created a stir when they disrupted the workshop to highlight an employment issue. Bascombe was addressing the workshowp when the workers, led by their president, Ainsley Matthews, appeared unannounced. San Fernando Mayor Regrello told them the workshop was the wrong forum. They left and police officers kept a close watch.

Regrello explained that meeting had been arranged with the trade union, San Fernando City Council CEO Indarjit Singh and himself for Tuesday to address the inability of the corporation to employ some 200 casual and temporary workers for the rest of the year. That meeting was rescheduled after the CEO fell ill.