by B. Roach
Premier the Hon. Reuben T. Meade caused a special sitting of the Legislative Assembly (LegAss) December 27, 2013 and succeeded to get passage to a Supplementary Appropriation bill to facilitate spending on projects that he, as Minister of Finance said, are critical to Montserrat’s Development.
Premier, the Honourable Reuben T. Meade who summoned the meeting almost immediately after the previous sitting on the 17th, says, that without the approval of the Legislative Assembly, the government would not be legally in a position to spend those monies to carry out the critical work.
Mr. Meade also says monies are to be spent in other areas such as, urgent repairs to the New Windward road, which leads to Jack Boy Hill and the garbage site, and the removal of asbestos from the Montserrat Secondary School.
The Premier outlined the money bill to the Assembly: “The funds are required to fund outstanding bills from Festival 50 which to a great extent were bills that had either been presented and lost some place in the system, or bills which were submitted very late,” he said. He added that this is, “Also, to provide them (festival promoters) with a modest increase in allocation, so that we can fund all of the private shows in terms of allowing them to use the park free, pay for the lights and sounds to facilitate them being viable.”
That amount he said, totaled, “one hundred and twenty thousand dollars ($120,000.00),” and was, “an increase allocation that’s principally towards Festival.”
“We co-hosted the 58th meeting of the OECS Authority,” he continued, and that required, “an additional amount of thirty thousand dollars ($30,000.00) to facilitate that meeting…” Eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($850,000) was sought, “so that the Ministry can continue to do work to patch those roads.”
Then to the asbestos that The Montserrat Reporter (TMR) suggested was an unnecessary expenditure. “The Montserrat Secondary School – material which was deemed to be asbestos was found in the buildings and we have to move that asbestos out in order to fix the buildings.” For that, “we are seeking to have an appropriation of seventy seven thousand, seven hundred dollars ($70,700.00) towards the asbestos removal and destruction…of the asbestos, proper burial of the asbestos,” he explained.
There were also: “Two hundred and forty six thousand, nine hundred dollars ($246,900.00) to meet those cost and those obligations, for persons from Montserrat who had to be treated overseas under special circumstances.
Laboratory and pharmaceutical supplies; the operating theaters are not cheap…one hundred and two thousand, three hundred dollars ($102,300.00); For Laboratory and pharmaceutical supplies – we look after the health and wellbeing of the people of Montserrat, three hundred and eighty thousand dollars ($380,000.00); garbage disposal – an appropriation of one hundred and eighty thousand dollars ($180,000.00) to pay the contractors.
Meanwhile the Hon. Leader of the Opposition Donaldson Romeo while outright challenging the spending money bill, believes more must be done to attract tourists to the island.
While he commended the Government of Montserrat (GoM) and the Montserrat Development Corporation (MDC) for the ongoing Little Bay developments (the Marine Village) he expressed concern about the benefit and support that will be given to the local businesses.
“we must commend the MBC and all government for the beautiful buildings at Little Bay, he said. “The only problem is, they are a bit ahead of the port that will bring the tourists, who will pay the bills of those establishments.”
He noted, “the MDC said it was not lending money to people who are going to open bars – most of these buildings are bars, and unless it’s new trade, it means that these bars are going to compete with the bars that are already existing. While we have beautiful buildings, we do not have business to support them,” he offered, following up with the question. “How is the investors going to be able to cover the cost of operation? What is going to happen to local businesses that are already struggling?”
Romeo said that over the next few months, “We need to have something drastic pop up, to bring more people in the meantime, to support all businesses that are struggling.
The Opposition Leader announced, “The opposition is working on suggestions and pretty soon we will see some of those come to light.”
