Gov’t to reimburse LCDS funds used to build roads, bridges in Indigenous communities

During an impromptu visit to the National Toshaos Council (NTC) Conference on Thursday, Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo announced that Indigenous communities will be reimbursed for funds used from their Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) grants to construct roads and bridges.

“Funds used from the LCDS to do bridges and roads particularly, those need to be reimbursed,” the Vice President said to loud applause from the Indigenous leaders attending the conferece.

Jagdeo revealed that one community has so far shown proof of spending $15 million to construct roads.

“I told any Toshao once you bring some evidence of it [utilising LCDS funds for roads], then that will happen [reimbursement],” Jagdeo stated.

He also revealed that the government will develop a comprehensive plan for Region Eight aimed at connecting the entire mountain range and the villages to Region Nine.

“We will work out a plan for Region Eight, a plan to connect the entire mountain and all the villages to Region Nine,” Jagdeo announced.

Dr. Jagdeo further emphasised that contracts for roads and bridges must be awarded to Indigenous villages wherever there is local capacity to undertake the work.

“You had the tender out recently. If there is capacity, then annul the tender for those villages, and where there is capacity, award the contracts,” he stated.

Jagdeo spoke about utilising local capacity in executing these works.

“I met with the Toshao of Kanapang, and he told me that he has a bulldozer already. He bought an excavator, so he has capacity there. He’s done a lot of the roads in his area. We have to capitalize on that capacity, and they utilize their own funds.”

The Vice President also committed to developing a road to connect Kwebanna to Moruca in Region One.

In addition to infrastructure, Jagdeo pledged to assess requests for schools made by various communities.

“We will examine all these requests. We’ll come down and do the survey to see whether it’s needed or not. In most cases, it’s needed because the population is growing, and then you do the expansion.”

“If we’re spending $1.4 billion on a secondary school in one community in the hinterland, then we can spend in small sums even directly in the village to build your schools,” Jagdeo said.