Region 10 Chairman defends slow spending of budget
CHAIRMAN of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) in Region 10, Renis Morian
CHAIRMAN of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) in Region 10, Renis Morian

CHAIRMAN of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) in Region 10, Renis Morian, on Thursday cleared the air as it relates to what has been described by residents as “slow spending” of the 2016 budgetary appropriation of $3B. Councillor Douglas Gittens in a request for an update on the spending, revealed that residents are concerned that the RDC has spent only $ 74,536,137 out of $3B after seven months. He said the residents are concerned that the monies will be returned to the treasury without being spent as has been the case in the past.
The chairman explained that the $3B is not what was allotted to the RDC, but includes funding for every sector of the region.
“The $3B that people saying is our money, is all the money that the Government would have spent in Region 10; the nurses’ salaries, the teachers’ salaries, the councillors’ salaries……so monies coming from Education, Public Works, Health everything…this $3B is not $3B coming to the RDC, $3B represents current capital of that. They will have a figure now coming from the RDC which would be broken down,” Morian explained.
He said that infrastructural development works are in progress, all contracts have been signed and all tenders are out and the focus is on the maintenance of buildings.
Morian revealed to the councillors that the inclement weather has slowed up road repairs and construction and the building of drains and bridges, but this has been expedited with the shift in the weather pattern.
Of the $3B, the budgetary allocation for public infrastructure totals $384, 459, 000. For educational development the budget has allocated $1, 804, 766, 000. Health has received an allocation of $$615, 117, 000, while agriculture received $$225, 556,000
Clerks of work needed
Meanwhile, the councillors have expressed grave concern about the absence of clerks of work during this period when significant infrastructural development is being carried out.
“Chairman, eyes on the ground would do a lot better with the work going on, it is significant work; gutter, roadside work and we need these things on the ground,” exclaimed Councillor Douglas Gittens. At the previous statutory meeting, the regional chairman posited that a solution to the problem is to hire a clerk of works and to secure his/her payment through budgetary funding.
He revealed that the previous clerks of work, who was sent on administrative leave pending an investigation, was paid through savings which should not have been.
“We want it in the budget and it wasn’t happening for the past 15 years, we’ve been trying to get budgetary money set aside for this and it never happened and we will have to up our game to make sure it happened,” Morian said.
Councillor Gittens stressed that the clerk of works should be paid well so that they would not be tempted to be involved in skulduggery.

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