MINISTER within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Anette Ferguson, on Wednesday met with a number of citizens to give a listening ear to areas of concern to them, when she hosted one of her “public day” meetings, which she regularly hosts every Wednesday from 09:00hrs – 12:00hrs.

The meeting was held at the minister’s secretariat Wight’s Lane office in Kingston. “Public day” meeting is a facility that Ferguson has had in place since she first became minister back in 2015. Though she is not always able to be present to meet with persons, systems are in place for persons to still be able to have their issues addressed.

“Since becoming a minister I have instituted this system, whereby to have a day set aside to meet members of the public. Because of having a tight schedule sometimes you don’t get a chance to have regular public day sessions, but even if I am not in office and persons turn up, I do have a system in place whereby my support staff would provide the persons with my visitor form. They will complete that form, and based on the comments on that form then I take the necessary actions; I would call them and provide them with feedback,” Ferguson noted

Despite being under public infrastructure, Ferguson noted that citizens can use the meeting to come to discuss any issue facing them, even if it does not pertain to infrastructure. Over the years, many persons have appealed to the minister for numerous issues and she was able to intervene.

“When people come it’s not usually specific to infrastructure matters, sometimes it’s about housing, agriculture, social services, be it in education, sometimes labour matters. So what I would normally do I would take their complaints and if it warrants me writing or following up with my colleague ministers, I do so. Sometimes I would prepare a little note and send the individual to the respective ministry,” Ferguson said.

“Electricity issues is one of the foremost complaints I would receive. Several housing matters came before me and I was able to work along with my colleague Minister Valerie Patterson and see how best we can have. They came with their letter of acknowledgement [from the Central Housing and Planning Authority] and after consulting with Minister Valerie Patterson, many today have been recipients of a house lot. Sometimes you get nice thank you card for the efforts you’ve done, I’ve many testimonies to share of what this kind of system would have done for the ordinary people out there,” Ferguson noted.
Ferguson pointed out that in addition to ordinary citizens, the meetings are also at times utilised by staff within the MoPI to address their issues in the work place. “It’s an open-door policy. Not only would you find members of the public coming, but also you would have employees within the MoPI, when they have issues they would come and see me also,” the minister highlighted.

EMPLOYMENT
Forty-four –year-old Wayne Junor is among those who met with Minister Ferguson on Wednesday. Junor went to make an appeal for employment. He was part of a batch of students who graduated from the Board of Industrial Training in 2017 from a course on heavy- duty machinery. Graduates of the course were encouraged to seek jobs within the MoPI. Junor says he regularly works as a taxi driver and also as a truck driver, but has had difficulty in gaining the necessary experience to back his certificate. He sent out applications in 2018 but has not had much luck. He hoped that Ferguson would be able to help.

He was asked to submit an application to the minister, and the matter would be looked into.

Security guard Stanley Forde met the minister on a labour matter, given that he did work for a contractor and following a dispute the man refused to pay him.“