Submitted by Watchdog

The potential to corrupt state and administrative systems leap to the fore when laws and regulations are ignored with impunity in the departments of government especially in parastatal units such as the UDC and the RDC.  These agencies have always been abused by cunning and crafty political agents.

The establishing of the special funds to address the damage to those housing units that were affected by the passing of  hurricane Tomas allows for such an opportunity. The justification for setting up such funds rested on the intention to have a rapid response to these circumstances, to conduct this effort in an equitable and orderly manner and to quote our Prime Minister ‘ to exercise discipline’.

If the words of our government speak to these virtues, how comes the Director of Rural Development Commission gets the authority to unilaterally make decisions to construct houses in the urban corridor of the country. Isn’t that what the UDC was set up to do?

The Rural Development Commission is now stretching and bending state laws in order to construct houses in a constituency outside the jurisdiction of the RDC.  The constituency where this odour now emanates is in the St. Michael area particularly in the St. Michael East constituency where the RDC’ s director is Chairman of the DLP Branch.

It has now become public knowledge in the community that many of the houses on the RDC list, earmarked for repairs under this Project, are not homes that have been damaged by Tomas, but are actually homes belonging to DLP operatives.

How can a Minister or Prime Minister turn a blind eye to this malfeasance. This government while in opposition did not close its eyes to the then Minister of social Transformation Hamilton Lashley, who payed a friend $11000.00  to cut down a tree which the contractor never did. These social efforts are always tainted by unscrupulous public officials who are not committed to any principles but cash for themselves.

This is corruption especially when extortion is part of the design, and has always brought governments to their knees. The Minister and Auditor General must be more incisive in the examination of these departments. More evidence will be presented to give credence to this information.