Sectoral Presentations 2018-2019 | Developing local government capacity and performance through elevated capital investment

Excerpts from the presentation by Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government and community development.

This Administration is infusing local government with new life through innovative programmes that are restoring its intimacy and meaning to our people, and I am humbled and proud to be the one who is now shaping the present and the future of local government through this time of fundamental change.

The process of transforming this level of government for national prosperity involvesnot only the implementation of major policies and programmes, but also the investment of significant money and time in the social and physical infrastructure of local government.

Our burning desire for a better life for everyone is inspired by the National Pledge, and especially its call for us to "...work diligently and creatively, to think generously and honestly, so that Jamaica may, under God, increase in beauty, fellowship and prosperity... ."

Social-protection programme

We started the unprecedented process of allocating dedicated financing to the elected represen-tatives through the four-pronged $400-million Municipal Social Assistance Programme to strongly enhance their effectiveness at assisting the vulnerable in their divisions. The programme was part of the over J$700 million the ministry provided to enhance social protection through administrative support to councillors, social housing assis-tance, indigent housing assis-tance, and education and funeral grants.

Every division received J$300,000 as education and back-to-school grants and other education-related services. J$25,000 is provided to each division monthly for office assistance. The councillors have expressed great enthusiasm for the programme, and we will continue with it this year.

Accordingly, $386.7 million will be spent in this financial year.

Some $68 million dollars will be allocated for administrative support/office assistance, $114 million will be devoted to funeral and education grants, $90 million will be spent on indigent housing, while $114 will be dedicated to social housing.

Homeless

We continue to demonstrate an active concern about our homeless population. The latest point-in-time survey, conducted by the ministry in July last year, revealed 1,935 identifiable homeless people in Jamaica.

We are erecting additional drop-in centres to assess, feed, treat, counsel and otherwise care for our homeless citizens. New drop-in centres are being constructed in Hanover, St Mary and St Elizabeth. Work on the St Ann Drop-in Centre is complete, and I was pleased to have officially opened it on May 11. This year, drop-in centres will be built in St Thomas and in Trelawny at a cost of $28 million.

In addition to all these things, this administration is devoting increased resources to expand the number of poor relief officers. Their technical capacity continues to be enhanced through human services training, and 15 candidates are currently being trained.

Education

On the subject of education, one of the greatest highlights of the social protection programme is the assistance that we are giving to poor children through education grants. We are ensuring that their to-morrow will be completely different from their circumstances of today. Every year, a special ceremony is held to award these children who have excelled in the GSAT, CSEC and CAPE exams. In the last financial year, grants valued at more than $1 million ($1,016,000) were awarded to 58 students to pursue studies at the secondary and tertiary levels. I have seen the transformational effect that these grants have had on these talented and determined children in my own constituency. We will do everything to ensure the development of this vital component of social protection.

Employment creation and facilitation

We are striving to incorporate our young people into an appreciation of local government, while giving them incentives and using their energy and talent to help the Ministry to undertake crucial activities. In this way, the Youth Summer Employment Programme will continue to generate employment opportunities.

In 2017-18, over 2,300 young people from the 228 divisions were employed to undertake tasks relevant to the Ministry's core functions including a streetlight audit, missing street sign data collection and collection of data on the vulnerable in communities. The data collection programme provides the ministry with the relevant information to improve service delivery. This year, we intend to increase the number of participants in the programme to 3,000.

Parochial roads

Access to proper parochial roads is a real and constant demand from our citizens within their communities and we have been making concerted efforts to address this need.

In the last financial year, this ministry invested $248 million on flood damaged and other roads in a number of parishes, and spent $115 million on Phase 1 of the Island-wide Drain Cleaning Programme.

This year, the Administration has increased six-fold, the level of investment in the improvement of our parochial road network. Since financial year 2013-14, the annual provision for repairs was $19 million. This year, it is $110 million. It is a reflection of the economic space that this Government has worked hard to create, so that more money can be spent directly to improve peoples' lives.

Disaster management

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) is steadily building Jamaica's capacity to prepare for and respond to nature's challenges, and enhancing the country's reputation throughout the Caribbean as a reliable disaster response partner.

As a sub-regional focal point for the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) network, which intervened after Hurricanes Maria and Irma, ODPEM was integrally involved in assessment, assistance and rescue activities in the Turks and Caicos Islands, Dominica, British Virgin Islands and St Maarten.

In Jamaica, the Agency has also been doing important work in rationalising the complement of shelters across the island. A shelter survey has been conducted, assessment reports have been completed and parish shelter Maps have been developed. This year, ODPEM will be conducting Shelter Management and Emergency Operations Centre Training in all the parishes, on a regional basis.

This is a vital preparatory tool for the Atlantic Hurricane Season, which is just weeks away.

The National Disaster Risk Management Volunteer Programme (JAMVOL) was also launched in the last financial year. This programme has been created to attract and train volunteers in community disaster management. This is a critical means of empowering communities to be their own first responders.

Conclusion

In the midst of our challenges, local government is on an upward trajectory. The ministry and its agencies are improving the quality and reach of service to our people, as we strive to make this form of government more meaningful.

This momentum of improvement is clearly a function of the work of the men and women in local government. It is also an undeniable outcome of the substantial investment that this administration has made since taking office just over two years ago.

The figures speak for themselves. I compare the allocated capital expenditure on the NSWMA, the Jamaica Fire Brigade, and the development of local authorities' infirmary infrastructure over the life of this administration, with the allocations made over the full term of the last administration.

Between the fiscal years 2012-13 and 2015-16, the last administration spent $66.1 million on upgrades to infirmaries and drop-in centres. From 2016, and inclusive of this Budget, this administration is investing $307.4 million in infirmaries and drop-in centres.

The administration spent $332.3 million over the course of its full term on procurement of, and repairs to, garbage trucks and disposal site infrastructure.

This administration has invested $948 million in the two years since we took office in 2016.

$605m on trucks

The last administration spent $605 million on fire trucks and related vehicles, such as ambulances, over its full term. In two years, this Government has invested more than $1.077 billion.

The last administration - which claimed to love and cherish local government - spent a total of $1.023 billion on these three major areas over the four years of its last term. After two years in office, and now entering into its third Budget cycle, this Government has invested and committed $2.68 billion in these critical areas.

When last year's unprecedented investment of $700 million in social assistance is factored in, this administration has invested over $3 billion in the people, structures and systems of local government.

We are keeping our commitments to the people of Jamaica through performance that is fueled by sound capital investment. It comes right back to what we were taught in this very House nearly 30 years ago..."it takes cash to care!"

The people of this country can be assured of this administration's continued investment in the transformation of local government. They can also be assured that as we work with the local athorities to increase and maintain own-source revenue, service delivery will increase and governance will improve.

We will continue to improve. We will continue to innovate. We will never stop trying.

Nelson Mandela said: "When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace."

I am not ready to rest. This Government is not ready to rest. With every difficulty, and with every small and large achievement, we are challenged and motivated to do even more to bring lasting prosperity to every Jamaican through local government.