Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein is calling on chairmen of the regional corporations to ensure that their employees do a fair day’s work for their salaries.
Speaking at the launch of his ministry’s clean-up campaign in Princes Town yesterday, Hosein said it was common knowledge that corporation workers only work for a few hours each day.
“It’s no secret to any citizen, and you will know who will judge us at the end of the day? The taxpayers who pay their salary and my salary,” Hosein said.
“When you come to work at 7 am and you leave at 8.30 to 9 am, it does not reflect well on the corporation and I am asking each corporation to meet with their respective union representatives to sit and discuss how this normal work pattern can be changed.”
Hosein said meetings with the various unions are necessary as some workers are classified as “task” workers who complete one task and leave for the day.
But he said this has a bad effect on productivity and needs to be changed.
“Right now we are not getting the productivity that we need and now is a time when the country needs productivity, you need to get value for money.”
Princes Town MP Barry Padarath also delivered remarks at the launch and called on Hosein to ensure the Princes Town Regional Corporation gets a new headquarters.
Padarath also questioned why the funds collected from property tax would be sent to the Consolidated Fund instead of being placed into the hands of the regional corporations. He said this contradicts what was promised by the PNM during their local government campaign.
Responding to Padarath, the minister said, “I listened to him and I will take it to the ministry and make the proposals but right now, we are in the process of putting up two corporation buildings, we are doing all the groundwork for it right now.”
He said those two corporations are the Penal/Debe Regional Corporation and the Diego Martin Regional Corporation.
With respect to the money to be collected from property tax, Hosein said, “I will do the best I can and ensure the funds that are collected go back to the corporation because we are on local government reform and the autonomy must be given to every corporation to do their own spending, cleaning and so on.”