$410m for 41 constituencies in budget

Next month’s 2012-2013 budget will include a new item of $410 million for Government’s Constitutency Development Fund which allocates $10 million for each of  the 41 constituencies, Planning Minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie said yesterday. He said the $10 million allocation would be open to all constituencies—from PP to PNM—to handle work that was not being done by Local Government bodies. He said the plan had been discussed by three previous administrations, including the PNM and UNC governments. “It has been deliberated by them but was never brought to Cabinet so it’s not new. What’s new is that we are doing it,” he added at yesterday’s weekly Government media briefing. Tewarie explained a team established by Cabinet had examined the idea of a constituency fund to improve service delivery, especially at municipal level, to increase effectiveness of constituency representation and support and enhance Government initiatives in the community in the context of local government systems.

 

 

Team input was given by the Finance Ministry, Local Government, Foreign Affairs/Communication and Planning sectors. He said accountability and transparency were big features of Government’s concept for the fund. The Attorney General would present legislation to Parliament  which would govern execution and administration of the fund, Tewarie said. He said the Planning Ministry would do a bi-annual evaluation of the fund concept and report to Cabinet on it every two years. Tewarie said if the legislation was not ready by September—when the Budget was presented—it should be ready by October or thereabouts. He said MPs for each of the 41 seats would sign-off for projects for the fund but the Finance Ministry’s permanent secretary would sign to allow allocations.