MINISTER of Local Government and Regional Development, Mr. Ganga Persaud, has told councillors of the Region 2 (Pomeroon/Supenaam) Regional Democratic Council (RDC)  that government must get value for money. Addressing a special statutory meeting, after the Standing Orders were suspended, he said government is looking at ways and means to achieve that objective.
Persaud said his ministry is doing a human resources audit in all the administrative regions and looking seriously at overtime, normal working hours, equipment, machinery and physical infrastructure, to determine if government is getting value for money.
The minister said government investments must be protected and called on councillors to, actively, address issues affecting people and put them first.
Persaud said the vision of the ministry is to, aggressively, maintain “what we have and to place greater emphasis on the maintenance programme.”
The minister insisted it is necessary to rekindle the vision of maintaining partnerships and challenged RDCs and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) to partner with the ministry.
Persaud said his ministry wants to bring back orderliness and the by-laws will be enforced because persons have to live within the spirit of the law.
He said the focus is on the fight that is called perceptions of corruption and public accountability and transparency to do business in what the ministry will embrace.
He said 2012 has already seen three visions of the ministry enforced and councillors must exercise their responsibility because the RDCs will be judged by their performance.