After two successive governments spent more than $20 billion in social programmes over the past decade, Local Government and Rural Development Minister Franklin Khan says T&T’s poverty level remains the same.
It was one of the issues he put forward as the Government consults on its proposed Local Government Reform that would see the disbanding of the Ministry of Local Government and transferring its responsibilities to the various regional corporations.
Speaking at the Penal Secondary School on Wednesday night, Khan said the distribution of social grants was plagued by corruption with holders of academic degrees receiving food cards as part of the Targeted Conditional Cash Transfer Programme. He said that was contained in a report currently before Cabinet.
He added: “All administrations realise that you have to spend money on social services because you have to have a safety net. After spending $20 to $25 billion in the last ten years, the poverty level has not changed. Basically, you threw $25 billion away and you have not achieved anything. The billions of dollars are not reaching the people that they are supposed to reach.
“The system of administration is poor and it is flawed so what you have now is corruption, leakage and families who are well connected, double dipping, triple dipping and quadruple dipping. There are people who are working with degrees, Masters, and they have five food cards in the house.
Khan noted: “Who is better to know the old lady that is getting a run around to get her pension than your councillor? Who knows who are the families who are at risk, who are suffering from extreme poverty, who is suffering from child abuse, who is suffering from domestic violence, who is suffering from incest?”
He said while all these things happen in a community, residents should not expect a public officer in Port-of-Spain to engage the community in the way a councillor would.
With local government reform, corporations would be able to recruit their own social workers and, based on the councillor’s information, better assign aids to those in need.
While poverty remained an issue, he said, the problem was not money, but the efficiency in the execution of programmes.
Khan said Local Government was one of the most inefficiently run bodies where unproductiveness is rampant. He said the country could not continue to pay workers for eight hours when they only completed two.
Many of the speakers at the consultation were excited at the possibilities local government reform can bring but both Khan and Minister in the Office of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs, Stuart Young could not say what policies the Government intended to initiate to prevent corporations from discriminating against certain communities.
Penal/Debe Regional Corporation vice-chairman Roland Hall and Penal councillor Shanty Boodram were criticised by some members who claimed discrimination.
Tyrone Clarke said residents of lower Latchoos Road, Penal, were denied employment with the corporation because they were perceived to be PNM supporters. He said grounds and roads were taken care of in several other areas around Penal while they were being left out.
La Romain resident Irma Agard said despite complaints to Hall about the shoddy construction of a box drain which had been causing water to seep under her property since 2012, she had received no help.
In response, Khan said his ministry would seek to introduce measures to address minority interests. He said elected officials were supposed to represent all people regardless of their political persuasion.
Hall was infuriated by the claims and, on the microphone, blamed previous PNM governments for neglecting part of La Romain because it fell under a UNC constituency.
Protesting vehemently, he quarrelled until the moderator had to ask him to wrap up his contribution. Eventually, Clarke had to move the microphone from Hall for the consultation to continue.
Upset at the outburst, Minister Khan reminded the audience that it was a consultation and not a political meeting. He said the Monday Night Forum was on Monday and told Hall he should learn to deal with criticism better as a politician. However, Hall continued his protest even as the consultation ended.