Heads of regional corporations tell govt: We need the money

Another regional corporation has slammed the government for its lack of funding to enable the effective management and delivery of goods and services to its municipalities.

The latest bout of concern came from Penal/Debe regional corporation chairman Dr Allen Sammy who said the lack of funds has stymied progress and development.

He said people were becoming weary of the inefficiencies and this has placed added stress on the councillors to do their work because of the scarce resources.

Sammy said, “Penal/Debe annual recurrent allocations, for example, have declined from six million dollars in 2015 to $1.7 million in 2020, with an expanded population of 5,000 people and the demand of those living in non-vested traces for services also.

“More nimble responses from local governments have not been matched by the reciprocal nimbleness from the various central government agencies resulting in a yawning gap in good governance practices. The people are fed up.”

Sammy noted that infrastructural projects such as road maintenance, water, drainage improvements, ground and cemetery upkeep and beautification, garbage collection, spraying and rat baiting have increased.

He added that a lack of communication and decision making in prioritising projects takes longer owing to the scarce funding.

“As it is, citizens are deeply disenchanted with the efficiency of local government and the slowness to adapt to using new technologies for communicating decisions.”

Sammy said central government needs to step up and provide the necessary means for local government and its regional corporations to fulfil their mandates to the people.

“I am proposing that the budget allocations for 2020/2021 be matched by the policy pronouncements on new mechanisms for processing submissions from local government for approvals, including streamlining of cross agency making at the central government level.”

Additionally, he called for vacant positions to be filled and for public aggregate and oil and sand pits to be made available to local government to allow for quicker access to materials to fix or patch roads.

Sammy noted that a major concern for his corporation continues to be flooding which, he said, emanated from the Princes Town and Mayaro/Rio Claro regions and, as such, a maintenance plan needs to be devised at a national level.

Chairman of the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo (CTTRC) regional corporation Henry Awong also told Newsday on Tuesday afternoon that they too were having challenges.

“We have problems to get funds to get materials for road repairs, to fix wooden bridges and to conduct other infrastructural works.

“There is a wooden bridge in the Mayo area that we call the glass bottom bridge that people have to cross every day. It could collapse any time. People have no choice but to use it.”

Awong added that between August to mid-September the CTTRC was only able to access about 35 per cent of the allocation.

On Monday, Chaguanas mayor Faaiq Mohammed and Chaguanas West MP Dinesh Rambally also raised concerns about funding issues as well infrastructural deficiencies.