With the 2014 fiscal year closed there is no money available to the Region Ten Democratic Council from last year’s budget, however, $35.2M has been released to the Region Ten administration for critical works only, prior to the passing of a new budget.
Clerk of Council to the Region Ten Democratic Council, Yollande Hilliman, made this disclosure at the RDC’s January statutory meeting in response to a request by Regional Chairman, Sharma Solomon, for an update on whether the Region has money to pay for recurrent expenses.
Hilliman, the Region’s chief financial officer in the capacity of Regional Executive Officer, said the monetary release was made on the previous day, Wednesday 14th January.
Stressing that education is a critical area, Hilliman said $21M was released for education delivery of which $8M has been identified for security services and $1.9M for teaching materials.
Health is another critical area, she said, for which $8M has been released, inclusive of $4M for security.
According to her, $4.5M has been earmarked for salaries and security for the Region’s Administration and student dormitories while $1.2M will go towards a stipend for Regional Democratic Councillors and Toshaos.
The Regional Chairman then reminded councillors that the $1.2M is being taken from the Regional Chairman’s budgetary allocation and while he agrees with the increase in stipend for Toshaos, he is insisting that the increase taken from that account for the Tosahos is unauthorized. He said the increase in the monthly stipends of Toshaos, Deputy Toshaos and another officer in Amerindian communities was announced at the recently held national Amerindian conference but he cannot understand “why and how monies were taken out of this Region for the cost of increased payment to Toshaos when we have the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs”.
