Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC has issued a stern warning to all 14 Municipal Corporations to step up their performance, or face consequences.
In a statement on social media on Saturday, the Prime Minister noted that there are 13,406 workers employed across all 14 Municipal Corporations, with PNM Corporations employing 8,220 employees — 3,034 more than the 5,186 employees in the seven UNC Corporations. Yet, the value of work performed at all corporations leaves much to be desired.
“Taxpayers are paying 13,406 persons in local government $2.1 billion, however after 9am you would be lucky to see the majority of them out working. That’s because signing the attendance book and returning home by 9am has become entrenched policy across ALL corporations. Scraping up small mounds of rubbish and sand for two hours to then leave on the sides of the roads to wash into the drains when rain falls is not a good use of taxpayers’ funds.”
The Prime Minister said that the government will not continue pumping billions of dollars each year into the Municipal Corporations while citizens continue to suffer from poor basic sanitation and infrastructure services.
“Every day teachers, health and protective services and private sector workers go out and work an honest eight hour shift while many regional corporation workers who despite also being paid for eight hours are not doing the same. The math is simple. Do your jobs fairly and provide honest services for citizens or else the government will move to outsource and mechanise the majority of tasks performed by the regional corporations.”
The Prime Minister made it clear that continued underperformance by the Regional Corporations could result in funding cuts.
“The future monetary allocations to the Regional Corporations will depend on their delivery over the next eight months until the next reading of the national budget. Decent law-abiding citizens must get value for their taxes they pay from their hard-earned salaries. The future of the regional corporations will be determined solely by the choices the 13,406 employees make in the next eight months. Step up or step aside, citizens deserve much better from local government corporations!”
She also took aim at PNM Corporations, noting that for 2026, the seven PNM Corporations received a total of $987.29 million — $181.83 million more than the $805.46 million allocated to the seven UNC Corporations.
“PNM corporations should stop suskaying, because they’re not going to get a cent more than the almost one billion dollars that they are already receiving for this fiscal year. Instead they should begin spending taxpayers’ money on services to citizens and not on feteing, rum, wining on the road and paying for ghost projects.”