Through individual government ministries, the National Task Force Commission (NTFC) has already made budgetary proposals for 2017.
“Already we are looking at the 2017 budget… our proposals will be reflected through the various ministries in that budget,” Chairman of the NTFC, Major General (Rtd) Joe Singh told Stabroek News.
He explained that the NTFC was not a separate agency slated to execute projects for the country’s restoration plan; rather, it would work alongside the various ministries to ensure that the agency’s mandates are met.
The Task Force was set up by Cabinet to aid with the transformation of Guyana under the new government. Its mandate primarily centres on drainage, solid waste management and derelict vehicle removal, traffic management, sustainable urban physical infrastructure renewal, and welfare management of the homeless and addicted. Singh said the Restore Guyana project was not just a clean-up for the country’s 50th anniversary or for Christmas but is aimed at also transforming the culture and behaviour of citizens. “We will require a revolutionary transformation of us, the individuals, our homes and communities,” he asserted.
Singh told Stabroek News that the NTFC’s life is expected to last until 2020. And he also noted that at that point in time, “Once the structures are established then there ought not be a need for a National Task Force Commission because, by definition, the work to address these areas of concern would be efficiently executed, one would hope, by those agencies that are tasked with that responsibility.”
He said that like last year, the six member agency, will once again submit a budget for programmes to be implemented through specific ministries and will await the Minister of Finance’s decision on what funding will be available.
“We submitted a budget last year and we were told what was affordable will be reflected in the budget…,” he said.
