WORKS CRITICISED FOR NOT USING FULL ALLOCATION

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A debate continues in the Standing Finance Committee as to what "unspent" funds actually comprise. Government Ministers are calling unspent allocations "savings", but Opposition MPs say unspent funds represent incomplete or undelivered projects and services to the people of T&T.  On Tuesday the Works and Transport Ministry was criticised for not filling vacancies which, according to the Opposition, in critical areas like the drainage division, contributed to flooding in parts of the country.

Transcript

00:00As the 2024 spend of the Ministry of Works and Transport was examined in today's sitting

00:05of the Standing Finance Committee, some opposition MPs, especially in flood-stricken areas, lament

00:12that full allocations are not used and vacancies in the drainage division are not filled in

00:18an effort to prevent what has become an annual crisis for their constituents.

00:23I would just like to support all my colleagues' statements on this side and state that I'm

00:30very disappointed that the 2024 estimate of 41 million resulted in an actual spend of

00:36only 35 million in 2024.

00:39So I would just like to reinforce my colleagues' statements that more has to be done with regards

00:43to jobs and filling vacant positions in this line item.

00:48Minister Rohan Sinhanon explains his constraints.

00:50I would agree that, again, the hiring of employees is a process and like many other ministries

01:00in the daily paid staff, there are some vacancies that have to be filled.

01:04In the mechanical services, we did take on employees as well and we will continue to

01:09do that until we reach the day.

01:11But we must understand, filling the positions is not everything.

01:16We have to make sure we have the competent people to fill the positions as well and sometimes

01:21that takes a while.

01:22But that's not all.

01:23The absence of employees at the repair division is, according to one MP, having severe impacts

01:30on their drainage system.

01:32In my constituency, we have indications of substantial amounts of equipment that at this

01:38point has not been able to be repaired for several reasons, one of which is the existence

01:42of staff in some of these divisions doesn't exist.

01:47There's inadequate staff and therefore equipment is left idle or unrepaired and as a result

01:52of that, we have work which is required to be done being subcontracted to private contractors

01:59as opposed to being done by the ministry itself.

02:02And the traffic enforcement unit, the minister says, remains functioning as its structure

02:06is being reviewed.

02:08Once we have on board the red light cameras, the spot speed and differentials, then this

02:15unit will then have to be expanded.

02:19So it all is, everyone interlocks with each other, so that we have a bigger spend here

02:24and a less spend here.

02:26Additionally, some $46 million is to be spent to lease a semi-submersible barge for the

02:32Karadag facility.

02:33Arushi Tamari, Rupnirayan TV6 News.

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