Govt allocating millions for unpaid municipality salaries

Oct 21, 2020 News

Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall.

Kaieteur News – The government will allocate $2 million to each municipality to ensure that town council staffers, who have not been paid for months, receive wages and salaries.
Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall announced that the sum will be released this week, after the government recognises that municipalities have not been able to generate revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic and sought to assist.
“The Government has made a decision to release funds in support of the expenditure incurred by municipalities to pay staff in this specific case, with each municipality set to receive $2 million,” Minister Dharamlall said.
He noted that Ministry of Finance has advised him that the funds will be released to each municipality by this week.
Meanwhile, Minister Dharamlall made it clear that government will be moving to have audits of the expenditure of the municipalities.
During 2015 – 2019, Georgetown revenue totalled $10.7 billion; Linden, $1.2 billion; New Amsterdam, $645 million, while Corriverton, Anna Regina and Rose Hall garnered $425 million, $272 million, $216 million respectively.
The Minister said the municipalities have managed their resources poorly.
“I believe with an audit or at least 10 audits … in these local democratic organs, we will be able to get a good idea of what are the gaps and where are the inefficiencies so we can work with the administration of these municipalities to manage their resources better,” Minister Dharamlall said.
He added that they will have to sit and design the Terms of Reference for the audits. The news follows protest action by staffers from the Anna Regina Town Council last week over their unpaid salaries.

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