A fifty-percent cut to ministerial allowances may look like a government effort to lead by example, but is it more about symbolism than real savings? And as the Briceño administration moves to channel housing assistance through area representatives, another concern emerges: how will government ensure that the money reaches those who need it without opening the door to favoritism or corruption? We put these questions to Dangriga Area Representative Dr. Louis Zabaneh, who shares his perspective on the allowance cuts and whether involving politicians in the distribution of housing assistance could create accountability challenges.
Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Area Representative, Dangriga
“Cabinet, in its wisdom decided to do the fifty percent cut. I think it is a symbolic cut, to be honest. The number I understand will be around two hundred thousand dollars for year. And if that can help in any way shape or form then that is great. I believe the other substantive actions that we were being taken will be the ones that will have greater impact. For example, more housing assistance. On a weekly basis we get requests in the Dangriga constituency for people who have their roofs leaking, housing falling apart. All those things are a genuine need. So this will go a long way towards assisting people and we have a long list of them we are waiting for that kind of assistance. Grocery bags will be doubled as you heard and again we do have legitimate needs and with the rising cost of living this will go a long way to helping residents in my constituency and across the country.”
Reporter
“Whenever you have the situation of monies being distributed through an area rep, you have the potential for some level of corruption. Do you think this will open up more avenues for that to take place?”
Dr. Louis Zabaneh
“It is the individual integrity of each area representative. We have certain requirements from the Ministry of Finance. We have to bring back all the proof of use of funds and then we get the next disbursement. That is how that works. In my case, I welcome the increase, because I have a long list of people who are waiting and I just want to try and look at the bigger picture, because we don’t want to create dependency. We certainly want to help those in need, but I always ask, especially the younger persons, have you looked at possible training at ITVET, do you need to go back to night classes. Those kind of things that will empower them so they don’t always have to come back to politicians.”
Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.
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