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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