PNP SAYS JLP COUNCILLORS TO GET MORE THAN DOUBLE ‘CAN’T WORK’
The administration of the St Ann Municipal Corporation (SAMC) is seeking to dismiss claims by the People’s National Party (PNP) that it is set to make a disbursement of funds that would see JLP Councillors being allocated more than twice the amount of their PNP counterparts under an emergency road repair fund.
(Mayor Sydney Stewart)
The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) controls the SAMC with 11 Councillors to the PNP’s five.
Minority Leader for the PNP in the SAMC told the North Coast Times he had been informed by a senior officer in the Council and a JLP Councillor that estimateshad been prepared to be sent to the Ministry of Local Government. He said PNP Councillors were to be allocated one million for work in their divisions and JLP councillors allocated between $2.75 million and $3.7 million.
Mr Brown was told by The Times that officers of the SAMC denied there was any such plan or any such allocation to be made.
“They have a directive. We have to nip it in the bud. It can’t work. It will not work,” Councillor Brown told the North Coast Times.
Minority Leader Winston Brown insists there is a plan to
In its release backing up Mr Brown’s claim, the PNP said the administration of the Council, including Mayor Sydney Stewart and the CEO Jennifer Brown Cunningham have been directed to make the allocations “on the instruction of the Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie.”
The SGR is a fund set up for road and infrastructure repairs and is often seen as an “emergency fund’.
NO ANSWER
CEO Jennifer Brown Cunningham said she had no comment on the matter. She refused to say if money had been allocated for work through the SRF.
Several calls to the Mayor’s telephone were not answered.
However, a senior officer in the SAMC with knowledge of the workings of the SGR and Financing of the Council told the North Coast Times that there had been discussion about putting together a programme to seek funds from the Ministry of Local Government. However, the source said there has been no programme no approval and no disbursement. “All that I know is there was discussion but nothing more,” the source said.
The Times was told that the last approved programme under the SGR was for work to repair damage to roads and retaining walls caused by rains in November and December 2023. That includes work in various divisions and was now at the Procurement stage in the SAMC.
In its release, the PNP said it was “gravely concerned about a recent revelation of stark imbalances in the allocation of funds within the Corporation’s SGR Fund”.
The PNP said further: “It has been uncovered that a programme sanctioned through the SGR has resulted in a significant discrepancy in the distribution of funds among councillors. Shockingly, eleven Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Councillors have reportedly been granted between $2.75 million to $3.7 million each for projects in their respective divisions, while a mere $1 million each was allocated to the five People’s National Party Councillors.”
