The Opposition-led Sangre Grande Regional Corporation (SGRC) is being accused of poor fiscal management after councillors were evicted from their offices at Ramdass Street, Sangre Grande, for failing to pay rent.
The comment came from Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Faris Al-Rawi.
Al-Rawi pointed fingers at the SGRC yesterday in the Senate when Opposition Senator Damian Lyder questioned what provisions had been made to ensure that the councillors continued to serve the public.
“Unfortunately, management is the answer. The corporation sits on over $1 million of unspent balances. The corporation has received 48 per cent of its annual allocation releases, has requested its other 52 per cent. It is well stocked with money. Management is critical,” he told the President of the Senate.
However, Lyder said he had a letter from the SGRC dated January 2024, which requested releases specifically for rent. This was previously revealed by SGRC chairman Kenwyn Phillip. During a media conference on Friday, Phillip highlighted that councillors had resorted to working from their vehicles, spending personal funds at internet cafes, and sometimes printing from his office.
Al-Rawi denied that any request was made for funds, reiterating that all chief executive officers from the various regional corporations took part in a retreat last Friday and the matter was not discussed.
“Not a single request or urgency flag was put up in respect of this matter and one can well imagine that when you’re sitting on almost a million dollars of unspent monies,” he said.
Minister Al-Rawi recalled that funds were disbursed for expenditure as recently as April 8 for the said month. He added that all corporations were encouraged to utilise virements—which approve the movement of budgetary resources from programmes, policy areas, expenditure categories or line items—and monies moving from head to head to circumvent shortfalls this year. He said this was documented in the Standing Finance Committee and the budgetary cycle.
“All other corporations have done this,” Al-Rawi said.
“If councillors have been put out of their offices by the own failings of their establishment, it really says a lot because there are multiple methods to meet expenditure including the utilisation of unspent balances, virements and requests for urgency,” he added.
Furthermore, the Minister said, the Chaguanas Borough Corporation, which is also led by the Opposition, reached out on Friday for the provision of sand and other materials which he said his office immediately went to work on.
“So, I’m really quite surprised. In fact, the only request that we received that was urgent from the Sangre Grande Corporation was the request for a luxury vehicle for its chairman,” he said.
When contacted, Phillip said he was in a meeting but would respond to the Minister’s claims today.
There are eight councillors at the SGRC, two of whom represent the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM).
Before Local Government Elections on August 14, 2023, the United National Congress held five districts while the PNM secured three.