Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen has endorsed the Prime Minister’s call on Saturday for Regional Corporations to step up their performance.
Speaking at a UNC Media Briefing on Sunday, she stated that the Corporations have received over $2.1 billion in the budget and “that is more than enough” for them to run their affairs efficiently.
“In the 2026 budget, the PNM Corporations combined got $987.29 million. And that is $181 million more than the $805.46 million that the UNC Corporations received combined. So the figures are there in the Ministry of Finance records that the PNM Corporations combined still get more than the UNC corporations. So it is an absolute lie, the claim of the Leader of Opposition as well as some of those PNM local government representatives who are scraping because they know that a Local Government election is at hand. And this clearly their campaign.”
Minister Ameen also addressed garbage collection, stressing that the government “will not play politics with rubbish” and that Regional Corporations have a responsibility to ensure proper sanitation.
“The Regional Corporations have a duty, a legal duty, to sanitise their region. And we will be working with all Corporations to ensure that the citizens do not suffer.”
On clean-up operations before and after Carnival, she noted that planning meetings have been held with all Regional Corporations well ahead of the celebrations, along with the Ministry of Culture and Community Development and the National Carnival Commission.
“Every Regional Corporation knows exactly what follows in the time of Carnival. Not only on Monday and Tuesday, but in the lead-up as well as thereafter. So any Corporation and any Mayor or Chairman claiming in January that they are not prepared for clean-up after Carnival is admitting to poor planning and weak management on their part. This is not a funding issue. This is a leadership issue at Regional Corporations.”
Minister Ameen said the planning has been very structured and focused on delivery with the goal being to protect citizens.
She said, “Corporations must not manufacture excuses to avoid doing their work. Stop the laziness.”