RESIDENTS of communities in Linden are expected to benefit from government contracts and small community projects, financed by the Regional Democratic Council (RDC), a move that will see the billions of dollars in budgetary allocations being trickled down to the grassroots level.

Pushing for the empowerment of the common man in this regard is Minister Simona Broomes, who has been assigned to Linden by government.
In a recent interview Broomes highlighted that in having one-on-one discussions with residents as well as during community outreaches, one of their major concerns was seeing employment being given to outsiders by the established contractors. Even when minor works are to be done in a community, financed by the RDC, employment is generally given to persons from outside of the community.

Broomes said she immediately sat down with the RDC after receiving this information on the ground and advocated for change. She also engaged established contractors about employing residents within the communities, and was given a positive response. One contractor has even employed a Lindener as a foreman to oversee his Linden operation. The RDC has since employed residents of Victory Valley to build some community bridges and to fence the Community Centre, thus giving them financial empowerment.

“You cannot have a drain in Victory Valley to do and you hire somebody from Georgetown to do that. The government is pushing for local content and so you hire the person in the community, that is empowerment,” Broomes posited. What was remarkable is that the money earned by the residents from those two projects was used to purchase additional material to construct more play equipment for children in a recently-commissioned play park in the community.

Applauding this move Broomes said, “At the grassroots level, what you find is more movement within the community, cleaning up of their community.” The minister then donated working tools to Victory Valley and Amelia’s Ward to be used whenever they are employed by contractors.

Residents of Cinderella City Amelia’s Ward are expected to gain employment upon commencement of the construction of Main Street, a capital project that is in the 2018 budget. Broomes told the residents that they will be employed to do ‘clean up’ jobs while the road is being constructed. Discussions were also held with the RDC to have the residents employed to clean the drains in the community. “The whole idea is that whenever persons come into your community to do work, you must be a part of it,” Broomes said.
Meanwhile, newly-appointed Regional Executive Officer, Orrin Gordon, has also advocated for local content and contractor capacity-building, not only in Linden but in far-flung communities of Region 10.

Gordon, during a recent interview stressed that government resources must stay in the region. While the law stipulates that 20 per cent of all government contracts are awarded to small contractors, many Linden contractors do not benefit from this, since they may not meet the requirement. Gordon is working with these contractors to build their capacity, in order to qualify.

“We are trying to encourage them and empower them so that they can lift themselves up to the next level. It will not be a good thing for us to continue to say that they lack capacity; so we have work cut out for us to embrace them.”

The contractors and residents in riverine communities will also benefit so that they too can get a piece of the regional pie. With the empowering of grassroots residents, Linden’s high employment rate is expected to go down; social ills are also expected to decline since the masses that are unemployed will no longer have to seek alternative ways to earn, in most cases, illegally for men and immorally for women.