…funds to boost infrastructure, improve transportation

MINISTERIAL Adviser at the Ministry Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Mervyn Williams, earlier this month presented over $9M to a number of Indigenous village councils in Region One and Nine to aid in development in the communities.

In Region One a total of $4.3M was handed over to five village councils. The Koriabo Arukami Village Council received $1M towards the procurement of a 15hp outboard engine, while Aruau, and Bersina communities received $800,000 each, and the Sacred Heart Village received $900,000.

Another $2M is still to be handed over to the region, with $1M apiece going to the Wauna and Sugar Hill communities.

On a two-day visit to Region One, Williams said he received multiple complaints from residents about projects being stalled on the excuse of there being a lack of funds. Williams said he, however, explained to the residents that this was not true. He was accompanied on the visit by the Region’s Regional Executive Officer, Randolph Storm. “Issues were raised about incomplete projects within villages. In Sacred Heart in particular there was a school that should have been completed in 2018, the suggestion was that the contractor abandoned the project and the regional administration said the money was finished.

The REO accompanied me on some of these visits and he has undertaken to get to the bottom of the matter. We clarified the false information being peddled in the villages, particularly in the riverine community, that there was no government in place, no budget, or resources,” Williams explained.

He took the time to engage the residents on further projects they would like to see in their communities. “We discussed the state of development in the various villages. We went to the Mabaruma sub-region and riverine communities and encouraged them to do an assessment of their village development plans and to start to put together proposals for capital projects for inclusion in the 2020 budget,” Williams explained.

He noted that some residents also complained of having their suggestions for their community being ignored by the regional administration, which is headed by chairman, Brentnol Ashley. “These communities are supposed to be managed by the council, and are required to come up with decisions collectively, but they have complained that the Regional Chairman defies their every suggestion,” Williams said.

“We got terrible complaints. In Anseln’s they said they asked regional administrators for a nursey school but they were given a health hut instead of the school that they requested. The health hut was constructed very close to the primary school and found it to be a health risk to students. There were reported cases of tuberculosis at that facility and persons are seen vomiting and spitting blood and the primary school is right there.”

In Region Nine, the St Ignatius Village Council received $1M towards the renovation and extension of its village office; the Nappi Village Council also received $1M; the Kumu Village Council was given $800,000 towards the development of a cattle rearing project; the Apoteri Village received $990, 060 and Moco Moco Village Council received $997,600.