$16.7M to rehabilitate State House annex as $6.1B cleared for Region Two

The entire $6.1 billion allocated in the 2022 budget for Region Two was approved on Wednesday as the consideration of estimates entered day three.

While the money will fund a series of current expenses and several major projects, it was revealed that $16.7M has been set aside to rehabilitate the annex to the Regional State House, where the visiting President and senior government officials are usually housed.

Under questioning from the APNU+AFC Region Two geographic Member of Parliament (MP) Shurwayne Holder, the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Nigel Dharamlall said the building is currently in a dilapidated state.

He said while the regional State House had been redone by the APNU+AFC “to look like a palace”, the annex remained untouched.

It is in this regard that the PPP/C government has allocated monies to “fix the floor and the entire building.”

Dharamlall was also made to answer questions in relation to the monies allocated for fuel and lubricants where Holder raised a series of concerns over the $12.5 million set aside for this purpose with the regional administration.

Despite the questions which carried on for a full hour, the entire allocation for the region was approved.

Of the $6.1B, some $272.6 million will go to the regional administration to conduct the proper management of the other resources being given to the region.

For agriculture, Region Two will receive $478.8 million while another $170.6 million will be spent on public works such as the construction of roads and bridges.

Another $3 billion will go towards education delivery, while $1.3 billion now caters for health services.