Former sugar farmers have long argued that they were entitled to receive money from the European Union. But there's been misinterpretation among canefarmers about the aid. Stelios Christopoulos, chargé d'affaires of the Delegation of the European Union, said the money was never meant for individual farmers, but for the Government to fix the necessary infrastructure to transition these farmers into gainful employment post-Caroni (1975) Ltd. "Several of those targets-training for farmers and workers, irrigation channels, access roads-have been met. We are trying to make indicators specific enough so we can actually measure them and so we can easily agree with the Government," he told the Business Guardian.
In the coming weeks, T&T will receive about 21 million euros from the European Union. The funds, part of a 72 million euro package for this country, will be disbursed to aid tertiary level expenses and to provide support for the sugar industry. Christopoulos said the EU is content with the investment already made in these two programmes. "For the two programmes, we are actually quite happy," he said. The EU spent two million euros to aid sugar farmers and 27 million euros as part of its sector budget support. It intends to offer "support for the sugar sector for diversifying out of sugar with programmes that are in 70 to 72 million euros for the next three to five years."
"I think we expect all in all funds to be disbursed to the sum of 21 million euros in the coming months for those two programmes. It is not easy for people to conceptualise budget support. "With sector budget support, what we discuss with the Government is policy. It is policy based. Once we are satisfied with our partner that the performance indicators for achieving the policy targets are met, we start disbursing funds to assist the Government." The money goes to the central budget where there are accountability systems. "We believe once the targets are met, we should not be busy at all for tracing the money. It is the policy of the Government to put in production. We work jointly with the Government." Christopoulos was adamant the EU would not cut funding, given the demands being placed on member states, such as Greece and Ireland.
"Nothing from what we are doing to assist the individual EU members states that are in some sort of difficulty with their budget targets and their public finance. Nothing is going to prevent the EU from disbursing assistance as planned," He said there's a lesson for T&T from Ireland's financial woes. "Perhaps that whatever you do, put your public finance management in order. Not just the Irish crash, but the Greek crash also.If you manage to put order in your public finance management system, you need to always be in control of your receipts, expenditure and your growth. We should never lose sight of this."
The EU's goal is to create capacity in its donor countries by not micromanaging the funds distributed. Christopoulos noted that budget sector support has the potential to strengthen the capacity of T&T's institutions, gives the Government more ownership and accountability for the assistance, and ensures that EU funds can be used in a more sustainable way to support the national development plans and sector policies. The EU's focus on their budget support for T&T is to increase the competitiveness and diversification of the economy. The EU recently concluded a consultation to review the performance and future of sector budget support as the preferred channel of development assistance from the EU to T&T.
The participants, which included representatives from the various ministries, pointed out challenges, including setting realistic and achievable targets within the period of the implementation to make EU programmes more predictable, and the need for co-operation between different line ministries and with the Ministries of Planning and Finance. The current sector budget support programmes within the T&T/EU co-operation framework assist public policies in areas such as tertiary education reform, mitigating the socio-economic impact of restructuring the sugar sector and supporting the business environment for diversification of the economy.