Ameen: No decision yet on backpay for councillors

The Minister of Rural Development and Local Government says no decision has been made by the ministry to deduct allowances for chairmen and convenors of committees from councillors’ retroactive backpay payments.

The issue arose after the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Local Government Authorities (TTALGA) sent a letter to the ministry, objecting to what they described as a ministry decision to implement these deductions. In their letter, TTALGA argued that such a move was “unsound,” “procedurally unfair,” and contrary to the principles of local governance.

Yesterday, Minister Kadhija Ameen explained that the decision to grant backpay to councillors was recent, and local government corporations are still in the preliminary stages of calculating the amounts owed.

“The regional corporations are still in the process of calculating how much would have been owed to the councillors and aldermen over the time and what came up during the calculation, is a concern that the auditors do not view committees other than standing committees as being entitled to that 800 dollars stipend and the auditors are at odds with the ministry, myself, and even the CPO,” Ameen said.

She added, “I have been in communication with representatives from TTALGA, and I am in full support of the deductions not being made, and I will continue to work with them. I want to encourage each corporation to very quickly do their calculations so that it can be audited.”

Currently, there are over 100 councillors across the 14 municipal corporations.

Ameen further contended that there are several matters on the local government front that warrant attention and pledged to address them.

“We are regulating a number of things that went wrong in the local government, and I continue to be committed to our councillors, who are our servants to the people.”