Latest update November 5th, 2024 1:00 AM
Probe launched into millions spent to establish community development councils – Minister Dharamlall
Kaieteur News- A probe has been launched to verify the operations of the Community Development Councils (CDCs) under the previous administration. Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall, told Kaieteur News he had not been able to confirm whether the groups were created as there is no evidence to prove that they had been convened over the last five years.
Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall.
The Minister noted that despite the fact that no new councils were established, evidence points to hundreds of millions of dollars being diverted to the CDCs.
The Minister explained that the objective of the CDC initiative is to allow residents to contribute to the development of their respective communities. However, he said this had not been done as many communities did not benefit from a CDC project under the APNU+AFC government. Instead, Dharamlall noted, the former administration politicized the few CDCs that were already in place, hampering development and the country as whole.
As such, he said that his intention is to conduct an investigation of the past administration, regarding their management of the CDC initiative, because resources were spent and staff was being paid to the tune of millions of dollars per month with no work done. The CDC Secretariat consisted of 33 staffers.
“An investigation is warranted. I hope when it is completed, then the handlers of the CDC groups will face the consequences. If there was, they must have used it as a slush fund and as a means of political man-handling of their supporters, because there is no evidence of intervention pursuit by the CDC,” he added.
Dharamlall said too that the last Government did not produce any evidence of any CDCs established in the five years of the APNU+AFC.
He said “I met with the former CDC Director who has produced not a single piece of evidence on any CDC being established during their administration.”
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