$.2M rent for URP

DESPITE the discontinuation of the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP), Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen has stated that in excess of $200,000 is still being paid monthly to rent the location of its head office in El Socorro.

Questioned by Opposition Member of Parliament Stuart Young on the 2027 $2.5 million allocation under the URP for rent, lease and office accommodation and storage in yesterday's meeting of the Standing Finance Committee on the Rural Development and Local Government heading, Ameen noted that the office was still being rented.

Though the majority of regional URP offices were housed in Government buildings, she said, the Head Office's space was still being used for storage and to house an undisclosed number of employees who remained stationed there. "The headquarters are still there. We do have the skeletal staff and one of the major things they are doing there is compiling the employment records. A lot of the people who worked in the URP over the years still come to the URP for their employment records to go to the NIS (National Insurance) and to get old age pension," she explained.