$5B budgeted for CIIP, improving markets

-$666.8M for City hall’s restoration works

Some $5 billion has been set aside to facilitate the launch of a more advanced Community Infrastructure Improvement Project (CIIP), which is aimed at improving community aesthetics, and sanitary and environmental conditions.

The sum of $714 million has also been budgeted to finance grants to Local Democratic Organs (LDOs) to improve their services to local communities.

The announcement was made Wednesday, when Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, M.P, presented the massive $552.9 billion National Budget.

He told the National Assembly, that while the LDOs have a legacy of “weak institutional and technical capacity and poor accountability”, the government is committed to changing that.

“We aim to further strengthen the institutional and human resource capacity of the LDOs, to ensure accountability and better management of resources, improve sanitary and environmental conditions, and help promote infrastructural development at the local level,” Dr. Singh added.

Additionally, $666.8 million will go towards the City Hall restoration project to commence restoration works set to be completed in March 2023.

In 2021, the Local Government Ministry, European Union (EU) and the Mayor and City Council signed a $780 million contract to commence the works.