Al-Rawi: 7,000 jobs created in local government last year

RURAL Development and Local Government Minister Faris Al-Rawi said approximately 7,000 jobs were created in various entities which fall under his ministry's purview in the last financial year.

He was speaking in the budget debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Among the 17 entities that fall under the ministry are the 14 local government corporations in Trinidad, the municipal police and the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP).

Al-Rawi said, "I can confirm that the number of people that we employ across those 17 entities is exactly, this year, 21,423 people."

He added that the ministry was allocated $284,335,000 for its development programme in the last financial year.

Some of that money was used to create new jobs – 6,996, he said.

He cited some examples.

In drainage and irrigation, 2,759 new jobs were created.

Approximately 990 new jobs were created with respect to the municipal police.

Some 179 new jobs were created at the Rural Development Company.

Al-Rawi said 745,000 people benefited directly from improved services because of those jobs.

Since being appointed minister last April, Al-Rawi said, he set about having records at the ministry digitised, which had helped to identify job opportunities in local government.

"A lot of people in Trinidad are fed with bad news, are told there are no opportunities."

The ministry, Al-Rawi continued, has an executive reporting framework which helps it to account for every cent it spends.

Since the public procurement legislation was proclaimed in April, Al-Rawi said, $128,764, 712 from the ministry's development programme had not been spent.

"That happened because we went into a period of limbo."

He said this was because the Office of Procurement Regulation (OPR) was not fully prepared for the law's operationalisation.

Al-Rawi reminded MPs that the legislation includes criminal sanctions (fines and imprisonment) for those who breach it.

"It took months for them (OPR) to say, 'Continue with your existing contracts, provided you meet the following criteria and everything else. Make sure it meets the requirements of the law.'"

Al-Rawi said because of this situation, local government corporations spent less than they were projected to

He cited the Port of Spain City and Chaguanas Borough Corporations as examples.

The former spent spent $23 million instead of $32 million. The latter spent $16.7 million instead of $29.6 million.

Al-Rawi lamented that he could not give MPs a PowerPoint presentation about the work his ministry is doing.Government MPs thumped their desks when Al-Rawi said such a presentation would show "money working for the people of Trinidad and Tobago."