BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IN his more than three-hour 2016 Budget Address today (Dec. 15), Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris declared that the People Empowerment Programme (PEP) needs a fresh start if it is to make a sustained and meaningful impact on the lives of the participants and the society.
The Prime Minister pointed to the current number of participants on the programme and expressed his surprise at the amount of them who were deployed to a particular government department.
“The most recent statistics indicate that there are still 2,680 persons registered under PEP; 2,380 on St. Kitts and just over 300 on Nevis. The data reveal that these individuals have been deployed in both private and public sectors. The public sector, of course, has the majority, 1,625 persons working across various Government entities.
“I was presently surprised after the election when I got into Government and to discover, for example, that the Customs Department has 82 PEP workers...82 in one single department.”
He however thanked the leadership at that department for what he claimed “putting them through some productive activity”.
Dr. Harris stated that while in opposition, Team Unity was of the conviction that the PEP was not sustainable.
“The Team Unity was one of the first to observe and to sound the alarm that the programme was not sustainable. Therefore, to continue to yield the intended benefits of a programme like PEP, we have to give it a fresh start and perhaps a step-up into new alternatives.”
The Finance Minister explicated that his Team Unity Administration had already taken measures to make the programme a viable one.
“We have started along a credible path to refocus this programme. And in October this year, we established a new oversight team to lead the reform process. The team, I am advised, comprises of representatives from the key Federal Government agencies, the Nevis Island Administration, the private sector and the group.”
He also said plans for its reformation would be finalised and implemented in 2016, adding that his Government had already started a process of consultation with the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Disclosing the findings of an initial assessment done by the CDB, Dr. Harris said the entity had indicated that the skills training and entrepreneur component of the PEP only involve 130 participants. “So all those thousands of persons that were brought in, when the CDB persons came in and did the evaluation of the programme in July, they found that only 130 persons were involved in any serious skills training and entrepreneurship activity.”
Directing his comments to the former Administration, Dr. Harris said: “This is an indictment on those who engaged in an election act of profligacy which today has cost our country over $160M. And I want the public to contemplate what $160M could have done to small businesses and medium size and large businesses. I want them to contemplate how many Basseterre High Schools while we waited for three years for agony of that particular school. I want them to contemplate what $160M would have done for Mary Charles Hospital, would have done for oncology service at JNF, and would have done to help our people who are carrying about the nation’s sheets to get money to go abroad for medical treatment.”
He continued: “When we look at Government expenditure we must also look at the alternative, the opportunity cost, $160M. And the reality of $160M...only 130 people been put on the exposed to significant training. And you make your own judgment regarding to this!”
The Prime Minister stated that some of the trainees have been on the programme for over two and a half years without any certification.
He also stated that many of them are being exploited and underpaid, and that many employers had sent home their regular employees and replaced them with the PEP workers, who are being paid by the Government.
“The Government then becomes a co-conspirator in devaluing the human capital of our people. Then they have the brass to have our young people parade in red, the colour of sacrifice, in the streets of Basseterre, and they develop the slogan ‘Get Piece of Blessing’. It is not a blessing, for he had not advanced our people to where they ought to have been,” he added.
Dr. Harris insinuated that the PEP is not providing very valuable training to the participants. “It has not improve on the social basis and skill for the people; it has not inculcated the value of punctuality and discipline on the job; it has not helped our Government to appreciate that there is honour in labour and when you goes on the job you must do the very best that you can.”
He noted that instead of promoting those values, the programme allowed the participants to go with the false idea that they could show up for work at 9:00 a.m. and leave at 10:30.
“It has not helped our people,” he intoned. “And it is wrong for those of us who would not depart of such an abomination...but had to carry this burden, because everything that the State does is ultimately paid for by the citizens of this country.”
