The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

JUST over $3m in monetary donations for Hurricane Dorian relief and recovery efforts have been received by the National Emergency Management Agency and deposited into its bank account, NEMA Director Captain Stephen Russell confirmed yesterday.

While there have been many pledges made for monetary gifts in the aftermath of the devastating storm, Captain Russell said the agency was still waiting to receive the funds.

“We have collected just over $3m and that was deposited into our bank account,” he said.

On Tuesday, this newspaper was informed that $2m has been physically received by an official.

Asked to reveal the value of these pledges, Capt Russell said he could not say, as accountants had not kept record of them. He said the money would be used to pay outstanding bills.

“We are doing some work. It’s just that eventually we will have to expend the funds to catch up on the expenditure that we have already incurred.

“Assistance from all areas, yes, flights to evacuate persons out of the islands (and) shipping,” he continued, when asked if the expenditure was associated with assisting evacuees. “So the funding will go appropriately to cover those expenditures incurred so far.”

This comes as Finance Minister Peter Turnquest has insisted donor money received by the government from dozens of entities and neighbouring countries will only be used to assist those affected by the deadly hurricane.

According to Mr Turnquest, this means the money will not be used to rebuild public infrastructure or as a means to pay for administrative costs.

He said to run the new Ministry of Disaster Preparedness, Recovery and Reconstruction, funding would be drawn from several places, including dormant accounts.

“Let’s be clear, it’s to fund the services that the ministry will provide,” Mr Turnquest said Tuesday outside Cabinet.

“So for instance monies that were donated may be allocated to shelter; may be designated for reconstruction of infrastructure that is critical to getting people back into those communities, that kind of thing. We are very careful and want to be very careful about how we utilise donor money in particular so I want to be clear about that.

“Donor money is going toward the intended purpose of assisting people, not for public infrastructure not for administrative costs. It is going to the people where it is intended to go, so I just want to be clear about that.

“We will use the loan money. We will use other resources from the other ministries as I spoke about to rebuild infrastructure and to cover the administrative costing.”

As for funding the new ministry, Mr Turnquest told reporters this will be done through a number of budgetary adjustments. But he explained that some of this ministry’s functions will draw from other ministries.

“…This ministry will have to draw on services from other ministries so for instance the Ministry of Works will have an integral part to play. The Ministry of Social Services will have an integral part to play and other areas where there is coordination that would be necessary.

“So a lot of the work that this ministry will do will be coordinating more so than actually doing things themselves, but to the extent that there is budgetary needs for them specifically there are a number of places that we can draw from.

“As you know we are taking funding from the international community through donors as well as through the contingent line of credit that we can draw down on as well as the dormant accounts fund. We are taking some money from that which as you know when we did the legislation was designated towards disaster relief. So we’ll take a combination of different funding sources to make sure the ministry has what it needs to be effective and carry out objectives.”

Mr Turnquest also told reporters that staffing needs for the new ministry would be fulfilled by drawing from the pool of employees currently in the public service.