JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Khadi­jah Ameen says the al­lo­ca­tion of the sev­en Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM)-led cor­po­ra­tions is greater than the com­bined al­lo­ca­tion to the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC)-con­trolled cor­po­ra­tions.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from the me­dia be­fore en­ter­ing Par­lia­ment for yes­ter­day’s Bud­get de­bate, Ameen said the num­bers don’t lie.

“What I can tell you, if you cal­cu­late all the al­lo­ca­tions to all the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions and you to­tal the PNM and you to­tal the UNC; the PNM cor­po­ra­tions ac­tu­al­ly have more in terms of the al­lo­ca­tion.”

In to­tal, the sev­en PNM-led cor­po­ra­tions were al­lo­cat­ed $906,124,000 while the sev­en UNC cor­po­ra­tions were al­lo­cat­ed $410,115,000, a dif­fer­ence of $496,009,000.

Ameen’s com­ment came in the wake of com­plaints by San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris ear­li­er this week that his cor­po­ra­tion was fac­ing pos­si­ble job cuts due to re­duced al­lo­ca­tions in their re­cur­rent ex­pen­di­ture for the new fi­nan­cial year.

PNM-led cor­po­ra­tions com­plained that they all re­ceived con­sid­er­able cuts in their re­cur­rent ex­pen­di­ture for fis­cal 2026, while the UNC cor­po­ra­tions all re­ceived in­creas­es in al­lo­ca­tions.

Yes­ter­day, Ameen said fund­ing to re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions is not based on pol­i­tics or bias, but said a prop­er sys­tem should be put in place so that, re­gard­less of who is in gov­ern­ment, al­lo­ca­tions will be based on need. She added that for many years, there was un­equal and in­equitable fund­ing to re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions, which many are now pay­ing at­ten­tion to.

Ameen added that the Gov­ern­ment will have to make ad­just­ments go­ing for­ward to en­sure that re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions are pro­vid­ing val­ue for mon­ey.

“There is an is­sue that has to be fixed with re­gards to the eq­ui­table fund­ing for re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions, and we can­not fix it with the present sta­tus. The Gov­ern­ment failed to up­date the vest­ing or­ders, which would re­flect the as­sets, the roads, the bridges, the build­ings, the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the cor­po­ra­tion, and that means they al­so will not be able to say the man­pow­er need­ed. So, I have ini­ti­at­ed that process where they will do the vest­ing or­der.”

She said em­ploy­ment at re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions is cur­rent­ly an ar­bi­trary process and is not per­fect.

Asked if at the end of the process it is deemed some PNM cor­po­ra­tions need more fund­ing and UNC needs less, if there will be an ad­just­ment, Ameen said that is a pos­si­bil­i­ty.

“All cor­po­ra­tions need more fund­ing. All cor­po­ra­tions have more things they would like to do. So, of course, there’s al­so the mid-year re­view and cer­tain­ly, when we start do­ing our work in the first half of the fis­cal year, we will de­ter­mine where we can ask for more mon­ey. The thing is, I know we will nev­er have our per­fect ask. I must tell you that I asked for much more than this in the Bud­get.”

The Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­istry was al­lo­cat­ed a to­tal of $1.807 bil­lion in the Bud­get. Ameen said the cor­po­ra­tions are un­der­staffed and un­der-re­sourced, with a need for pub­lic health in­spec­tors, doc­tors, en­gi­neers and at­tor­neys.