– says Finance Minister
– Gov’t mulls replenishing budgetary allocations of agencies that aided flood response
AFTER weeks of nationwide flooding, Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, has highlighted that the government is crafting an optimal package for flood relief for affected farmers and households.
Dr. Singh said this during an outreach activity at the Giftland Mall, Georgetown, on Saturday. In June, the National Assembly cleared a sum of $10 billion which will be spent on intensifying the government’s relief efforts, particularly as it relates to the provision of food, sanitary and medical supplies to those affected.
The supplementary funds for flooding will also facilitate the execution of critical emergency repairs to a number of public infrastructures, such as roads and bridges, that have been destroyed by unprecedented levels of floodwaters.
On Saturday, Dr. Singh explained that in order to decide the detailed deployment of that sum, a nationwide survey, led by Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, has been ongoing. Currently, officials are examining the data collected thus far and filling in the gaps so that the flood response could be decided upon.
“We are going to have to decide the optimal package of response that we are going to be provided and the exact shape and form (of) that is currently being examined,” he highlighted.
The Finance Minister reminded members of the media that the government’s initial focus was on safeguarding the lives of citizens while the floodwaters filled their homes and farms. During that time, food and cleaning supplies were provided and worse-affected residents were housed in a number of shelters. Emergency drainage works were also engaged in.
Now, he related, emphasis is being placed on facilitating a return to productive economic activities.
REPLENISHING AGENCIES
Meanwhile, the senior minister also reminded that a number of agencies redirected their budgetary allocations towards efforts geared at providing flood relief. For example, he said the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) spent large sums of money to aid the deployment of flood-response equipment such as pumps.
“To the extent that there are agencies that utilised their existing budgetary resources to execute the immediate post flood response, we’re also going to have to be looking at that because we are going to have to do some kind of replenishment so those agencies to ensure that they are able to execute their originally planned programmes,” Dr. Singh contended.
Furthermore, he reasoned that those agencies were scheduled to execute a number of activities that are still needed or that may be more urgently needed.
“I’m hoping that that can be completed very soon so that we can, first of all, restore those agencies budgets so that they can return to doing or implementing the activities they have in their budgets and also I am hopeful that we can roll out the assistance that is needed to the farmers and the other persons and households who were affected,” the minister said.
