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Members of Parliament will have to budget carefully to finance projects within their constituencies.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding has announced that the administration will not be able to provide the two and a half per cent budgetary allocation for constituency development projects.
Addressing reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Golding said the MPs will not get the full allocation in the first year, due to the current strain on the economy.
He however noted that he is determined to make funds available to give MP's more credibility among their constituents.
"It is not going to be possible to get to two and a half per cent in the first year it is going to be somewhat below that but it is going to be sufficient. I know it is a project that has attracted some criticism but we will continue to defend it because elected representatives cannot be left at the whims and fancies and discretion of a minister or some bureaucrat or technocrat. It must be possible for a elected representative to be able to work with the people who elected him or her to agree on specific projects and have those projects implemented," said Mr. Golding.
At the same time Mr. Golding warned that the MPs will not have carte blanche in the administration of the programme.
"Members of parliament are not going to be allowed to walk around with a pencil behind their ears and hand out money as they see fit, the proposals for project expenditure will have to come to a special unit in the Office of the Prime Minister, it will then have to go to a special committee in parliament so that it is going to be open for the public to scrutinize what is being done with the funds in a particular constituency and it is going to be subject to the most intense auditing that any government programme undergoes," he continued.
The allocation was a major plank of the JLP's election campaign.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding has announced that the administration will not be able to provide the two and a half per cent budgetary allocation for constituency development projects.
Addressing reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Golding said the MPs will not get the full allocation in the first year, due to the current strain on the economy.
He however noted that he is determined to make funds available to give MP's more credibility among their constituents.
"It is not going to be possible to get to two and a half per cent in the first year it is going to be somewhat below that but it is going to be sufficient. I know it is a project that has attracted some criticism but we will continue to defend it because elected representatives cannot be left at the whims and fancies and discretion of a minister or some bureaucrat or technocrat. It must be possible for a elected representative to be able to work with the people who elected him or her to agree on specific projects and have those projects implemented," said Mr. Golding.
At the same time Mr. Golding warned that the MPs will not have carte blanche in the administration of the programme.
"Members of parliament are not going to be allowed to walk around with a pencil behind their ears and hand out money as they see fit, the proposals for project expenditure will have to come to a special unit in the Office of the Prime Minister, it will then have to go to a special committee in parliament so that it is going to be open for the public to scrutinize what is being done with the funds in a particular constituency and it is going to be subject to the most intense auditing that any government programme undergoes," he continued.
The allocation was a major plank of the JLP's election campaign.
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