Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen says the National Programme for the Upkeep of Public Spaces (NPUPS) is helping to address inequities she says existed under the CEPEP programme.
During Friday’s sitting of the Senate, Minister Ameen claimed that the distribution of CEPEP contractors under the previous administration favoured specific constituencies, resulting in an uneven allocation of resources across the country.
“But really if you look, if you do an analysis of where the CEPEP contractors were distributed, it was really in areas where the former Government MPs were. And so there was that large concentration on constituencies that were represented by PNM.”
In contrast, she said the NPUPS is being implemented through all 14 Municipal Corporations and is supporting functions such as waste management, drainage maintenance and the upkeep of public spaces.
“We are working on strengthening all 14 of our Municipal Corporations and empowering them to take on the responsibilities that are assigned to them in law, including those in your question in terms of waste management and drainage and so on.”
The Minister also highlighted broader efforts to strengthen Municipal Corporations through institutional reform, saying Government intends to expand their capacity to better serve communities.
“So we are in fact working to strengthen every area of performance, including public health is a huge area and you will hear more about how we are giving that institutional support. Just as we have created procurement units, we have created local economic development units, we will be creating units that deal specifically with public health because they have so much under their purview, and based on the years of neglect, one public health inspector can’t deal with all of that.”
Minister Ameen said local government bodies have significant public health responsibilities, many of which have been affected by years of institutional neglect.
She said these dedicated public health units will be established within the Municipal Corporations to provide additional support, improve capacity and strengthen service delivery at the local government level.