Over the last three months the Ministry has disbursed approximately $18.5m to aid rodent eradication efforts in the island’s fourteen parishes this, in furtherance of the Clean Up Jamaica effort.

The Clean Up Jamaica project was established in April of this year when Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller instituted an interministerial committee to spearhead clean up activities across the island.  The initiative was a response to a KSAC parish disaster and public health committee disclosure that about 50 communities in the corporate area were heavily rat infested.

The table below shows the disbursement to each Local Authority to date; an additional $2 million dollars is to be allocated to Kingston & St Andrew.

Some fifty five (55)participants from the island’s Local Authorities (LAs) and portfolio agencies of the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development are currently engaged in a 5day workshop on conducting Safety Audits. The workshop, sponsored under the Enhancing Civil Society Participation in Local Governance for Community Safetyinitiative, is designed to provide the participants with knowledge and know-how to effectively undertake needs analysis in their respective parishes.

The workshop is being by the University of Technology, the major capacity building partner in the project. At the end of the training the participants who are from the (6) pilot parishes will be better able to address the creation of safer environments by looking at crime and violence as well as, other intervening environmental issues that create insecurity, e.g. over-bushed verges, poor lighting, electricity theft, squatting etc.

The ability to undertake proper safety audits will enhance the capacity of the LAs and their partners to develop sustainable long-term strategies to prevent and mitigate the effects of crime and violence. This is the main focus of the Community Safety project which is sponsored by the United Nation’s Development Programme (UNDP).  Additionally, the project requires a focus on improved partnerships between civil society, local authorities, and central state agencies, which this training exercise supports.

The UNPD’s community safety project began in April 2011, and is being piloted in St. Catherine, Clarendon, Manchester, Westmoreland, Trelawny and St. Mary.

Permanent Secretary Robert Rainford along with members of his management team visited the St Elizabeth Parish Council yesterday, Thursday September 13, 2012 as part of his familiarization session with the Local Government portfolio.

The PS informed senior members of the Councils’ administrative team as well as the full membership of the Council, who had earlier sat for their monthly Council meeting, that this was his first stop in a journey designed to fully immerse himself in the character/nature of the Local Authorities in order to be better able to address their needs at the Ministry. “I want to talk with you about your Council, your parish and your challenges so that when matters come to my desk I have a context in which I can deliberate and make decisions”, he said.

The Council was very responsive to and appreciative of the approach taken by the Permanent Secretary and took the opportunity to inform him of matters which were of greatest concern to them as well as to highlight some of their most recent achievements.

The common thread throughout the Councillors’ presentations was a general disquiet with the pace of the local government reform programme, opening the cue for Mr Clive Edwards Project Manager of Local Government Reform Programme, to provide an update.

There were also a few items that PS Rainford was asked to advance on behalf of the Council; these included the establishment of a tax collection facility in Junction and the completion of the Municipal Building.

Secretary/Manager of the St Elizabeth Parish Council, Mr. David Parkes reported that over the last year the Council has achieved a number of goals including the installation of a new Financial Management and Accounting System (FMAS), the installation of the Approval Management and Data Analysis (AMANDA) software along with attendant components, the completion of a new matron’s quarter, the Santa Cruz Fire Station and the fishing market.

The team also met with administrative staff and conducted a tour of the infirmary in Santa Cruz and the Black River Market, which is being renovated and is at 80% completionof the first phase.