Tobago West MP: CEPEP and URP to continue in Tobago

In thi file photo, Cepep workers cut grass and clean the area near Back Bay, Black Rock, Tobago. -

The Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (Cepep) and the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) would continue in Tobago, Tobago West MP Joel Sampson assured.

Delivering his contribution to the budget debate in Parliament on October 17, Sampson said despite plans to eliminate the programmes in Trinidad, the initiatives on the island remain under the control of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), which does not intend to take similar action.

He said URP falls under the Division of Infrastructure, Quarries and Urban Development, while Cepep is under the Division of Community Development, Youth Development and Sport.

"When we took office in 2021, we reshaped them and meaningful work is being produced through these two areas. There is the concrete furniture workshop, there is the woodworking furniture workshop, and there is the agricultural unit that produces a form of revenue and income to help sustain them."

He said over the years, funding from the central government has been insufficient to sustain the programmes, and the THA has found a way to make up the shortfall, particularly from unspent balances.

"We received $9.2 million for Cepep, $18 million then for URP. In reality, to run URP it costs $65 million. To run Cepep was $37 million, Mr Speaker. When we took office, URP workers were being paid $79 a day with no added benefits: no sick leave, no holidays, no casual leave. All that is gone because of the Farley Chavez (Augustine) led THA executive that would have given them all the benefits they needed.

"So, Tobagonians in Cepep and URP, there is no need to worry. You are going nowhere. You are under our structure, a proper structure and not a political contract."

Minister of Finance Devendranath Tancoo announced on October 13 that the Cepep and URP programmes were going to be eliminated to end "the state funding of criminal gangs."

Instead, he said those benefiting from the programmes would be given full-time, better-paid jobs. He did not reveal any further details, saying Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar would elaborate in her contribution to the budget debate. She did not speak in the Lower House, a move which disappointed Malabar/Mausica MP Dominic Romain. Romain contributed to the debate immediately after Sampson.

The Tobago West MP, who belongs to the Tobago People's Party (TPP), commended the government for its proposed budget.

"There is no perfect budget. There is no perfect Minister of Finance and there is no perfect prime minister, but this budget comes as close to perfection as we have ever seen in the history of the Tobago House of Assembly. It addresses the needs of the normal person."

Sampson said the THA received the majority of what it requested from the government. He said it requested recurrent expenditure $787.3 million and received $757.7 million, $809 million for goods and services and received $788.6 million and $1.07 billion for current transfers and subsidies and received $1.1 billion.

In total, Tobago received an allocation of $3.724 billion, which equates to 6.3 per cent of the national budget.