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  • 2 days ago
Minister of Works and Infrastructure Jearlean John tells TV6 News that as it pertains to her Ministry, around 1,800 employees from the Job Recruitment Drive 2025 are on the ground.

She expounds on some of the areas where they are operating, saying it is a work in progress.

Alicia Boucher has the details.
Transcript
00:0020,000 jobs were advertised by Prime Minister Kamala Plasad-Bissasa across various ministries
00:06under Phase 1 of the government's job recruitment drive 2025, launched in October of last year.
00:13The Ministry of Works and Infrastructure and the Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence
00:19were tasked with managing the initial application process.
00:23However, Works Minister Jolene John says she can only account for the results of that drive
00:28pertaining to her ministry as she provides an update to TV6 News.
00:33The Ministry of Works and Infrastructure got permission from the Cabinet to engage 1,803 persons.
00:41And they've been working since about mid-December or thereabouts.
00:45And they've been cleaning up all the roadways here, there, everywhere from the highway,
00:52the Gomartin Highway, from Piako, straight down to the Bissom, etc.
00:57You'll see the medians, they're all cleaned up.
00:59I mean, on their power washing, you look over the flyover, that Grand Bizarre flyover,
01:05you'll see it's all very clean and the roadway along there is very clean.
01:10Now, it's a work in progress.
01:12Minister John says there is a roundabout programme and a highway clean-up programme
01:17geared toward ensuring that various areas in the country are maintained and kept in a sanitary condition.
01:23Other initiatives are expected to be launched in utilisation of the workers the Ministry has recruited under contract.
01:31The painting programme will come on board.
01:33The power washing is ongoing.
01:35We are about to power wash from Weimar straight into Shogonis, etc.
01:42So we are working on multiple fronts.
01:44And they are working early morning shift and there's a night time, multiple crews in the night also.
01:50John adds that power washing of the walls from the lighthouse to the Tobago terminal at a port in Port of Spain was recently undertaken.
01:59The minister notes that during the carnival season, there is a higher generation of garbage in and around city centres.
02:06And while she tells us mechanisms must be put in place for that,
02:10the work under her ministry is being done with long-term change in mind.
02:14We are really kind of bringing some sense of order through cleanliness into the country, right,
02:21which should become a way of life for us.
02:24This is not something temporary or ad hoc, as the case might be.
02:28This is something that should just be a way of life.
02:31It will take us some time to kind of regain some kind of control.
02:35Under programs such as CPAP and URP, productivity and length of working hours were at times points of contention.
02:44But John signals a very different approach for workers under her ministry.
02:49This as TV6 News sought to inquire how many of the 1,803 positions approved by Cabinet were in fact filled.
02:57Well, we try to fill all, right, as they get paid, sometimes you do the reconciliation, you know,
03:05because you work, it's serious work, you're coming to work, you know.
03:08This is not a posing, this is not a posing position.
03:11I expect eight hours and you come to really work to make that difference.
03:15And I said, if you look, you will already see that difference even within that short space of time.
03:21Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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