THE Region Five Administration (Mahaica/Berbice) completed 99% of its current and capital programs of delivery of services to the people within the Region and carried out additional works from savings accrued in 2017.

The disclosure was made on Tuesday last by the Regional Executive Officer Mr. Ovid Morrison during a media briefing on the performance of the Region in 2017. He disclosed that at the start of 2017 the Region was allocated a total of $3Billion dollars for its programs under the heads of Administration ($145M) Health ($625M) Education ($1.5B) Agriculture ($198.3M) and Public works ($156M).

Major developments for the people of Region Five resulting from the use of these funds included improved drainage from flooding caused by excessive rainfall in flood prone communities; the construction and upgrading of several farm to market roads to drive agricultural development and growth in several communities; upgrading of community roads in several communities and major improvements in its healthcare capabilities.

Of interest too he added, was that in addition to these works, the Administration provided a total of $699M to the ten Neighborhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) in support of developmental projects for the benefit of their residents. “We may have juggled our priorities in some instances but there was no discrimination against any NDC, that is People’s Progressive Party controlled as is being alleged by some of our detractors,” he said.

He stressed that the sums the NDCs benefited from were additional to the $4M subvention given to each NDC given by the Government as a form of subvention last year. He said that the residents of Region Five can expect further improvements in services which affect the quality of their lives with the prudent spending of Central Government allocations of approximately $3.3B this year.