THE WITHDRAWAL of $496 million from the Capital Development Fund (CDF), as approved by the House of Representatives last week to help finance the national budget, has drawn the ire of the Opposition over what they describe as a shortfall in the allocations from that fund to the infrastructural development of mined-out bauxite areas.
The CDF is funded from the bauxite levy and was established with a clear mandate to reinvest some of the returns earned from the industry into community and infrastructural upgrade of communities located in the bauxite belt.
However, the Opposition Members of the House have been vociferous in their claims that in spite of assurances given by the Government, there has been little or no expenditure on development projects in the operational areas covered by the industry.
Indeed, one would have expected that after some 30 years of substantial returns from the levy, those specific areas in St. Catherine, Clarendon, Manchester, St. Elizabeth and St. Ann would be showing more visible evidence of improved social, educational, and economic amenities earned from the presence of such sustained industrial activity.
Yet successive governments have plundered on, with the present Finance Minister Omar Davies unabashedly reporting that the total amount drawn this year is some $2.9 billion for budgetary support, leaving $515 million in the kitty, with reports elsewhere of a mere $25 million allocated to the Bauxite Community Development Fund for 2006.
We hold no brief for the Opposition in this instance, nor the Government MPs, who to their shame and our disquiet, remain tongue-tied, unwilling to challenge the Finance Minister on this disproportionate deal, yet no doubt areas grieved as their cohorts on the other side of the House over their loss of a slice of the pie.
What we find bewildering is that the bauxite funds are being allocated through the politicians rather than the community organisations and councils who should be the real beneficiaries and conveyors of this programme.
The bauxite companies have been diligent about their fiscal responsibilities regarding levy and tax, and have contributed significantly to the social and economic development of their host communities and the country.
The CDF, on the other hand, seems to have lost its sense of direction. It needs to be brought back on track so that it can adequately fulfil its purpose as a key functionary in the responsible management of our bauxite resources and the sustainable development of our bauxite communities.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
