The Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment says no de­ci­sion has been made by the min­istry to deduct al­lowances for chair­men and con­venors of com­mit­tees from coun­cil­lors’ retroac­tive back­pay pay­ments.

The is­sue arose af­ter the Trinidad and To­ba­go As­so­ci­a­tion of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Au­thor­i­ties (TTAL­GA) sent a let­ter to the min­istry, ob­ject­ing to what they de­scribed as a min­istry de­ci­sion to im­ple­ment these de­duc­tions. In their let­ter, TTAL­GA ar­gued that such a move was “un­sound,” “pro­ce­du­ral­ly un­fair,” and con­trary to the prin­ci­ples of lo­cal gov­er­nance.

Yes­ter­day, Min­is­ter Kad­hi­ja Ameen ex­plained that the de­ci­sion to grant back­pay to coun­cil­lors was re­cent, and lo­cal gov­ern­ment cor­po­ra­tions are still in the pre­lim­i­nary stages of cal­cu­lat­ing the amounts owed.