Local Government, Community Development and Sport Minister, Portia Simpson Miller has said that the Ministry has been fair and equitable in the allocation of funds to parish councils, irrespective of the political party which has control of the council.

Responding to reports from the media that some parish councils were reporting that they were being “starved for funds”, the Minister said that was inaccurate, as records from the Ministry could attest to the fact that parish councils across the island, which for the most part were under the leadership of the Jamaica Labour Party, “are now receiving more money than they received when they were controlled by the People’s National Party”.

Mrs. Simpson Miller was speaking at her post Sectoral Debate press conference, at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston, yesterday (July 2).

The Minister pointed out that with the increase in property tax and the increase in motor vehicle licence fees, the parish councils were receiving more money now than before.

Addressing questions about the selection of roads to be repaired within a parish council, Minister Simpson Miller informed the media that under the Ministry’s road rehabilitation programme, plans for the repair of damaged roads in parishes across the island “are not developed within the Ministry of Local Government,” noting that it was “the parish councils which decided among themselves, and then send their submissions to the Ministry”.

The Minister emphasised that it was the Ministry’s policy to show “openness, equity, and justice”, adding that she tried to exemplify the same qualities in the Ministry’s allocation of funds to all the councils.