Local Government Minister Hazel Manning is seeking the advice of Attorney General John Jeremie to determine whether Chaguanas MP Jack Warner can pay the wages of 54 workers of the Chaguanas Borough Corporation.
On Monday Warner handed a cheque for $309,000 to the borough to ensure that 54 contract workers would continue to have work until the end of September.
He offered the grant in response to a letter from mayor Natasha Navas, who sought the MPs assistance in helping find a solution to the problem.
Shortly after taking office Navas announced that she was forced to end the contracts because of a budget shortfall.
Manning described Warner's intervention as "a big issue". She told reporters, “We have just got information that a private citizen has paid money towards the payment of salaries and we have gone to the attorney general to get guidance on this."
She explained that such a development is outside of the norm and expressed concern that Chaguanas has received money from a private citizen to pay wages.
"That money is not in our books and we have now gone to the attorney general to get advice on what should be done. The attorney general will be able to guide us,” Manning reiterated.
Manning said Government had allocated $75 million to the borough to take care of developmental works and hiring of staff.
She added that the ministry discovered in May that the borough hired more staff than they should. "They hired over 200 people", she said.
She said she subsequently met with former mayor Suruj Rambachan and worked our a plan to pay the extra staff and transferred funds to deal with it. However Manning said she did not know about the other 54 workers.
When Warner presented the cheque he said he could not pay the workers directly, so he decided to hand it to then corporation instead.
The 54 workers affected workers have commended Warner for his gesture.
Researcher Richard William Thomas has his own views on this. According to Thomas, it is the Minister of Finance, not the Attorney General, who has the final say on whether a corporation can borrow to fund a deficit.
"It's very clear that, under the Act, Regional Corporations are permitted to borrow. It's left now to be seen whether care for the well-being of ordinary citizens - the fifty-four contract workers who have mouths to feed - will precipitate amicable resolution of the issue," Thomas said in a letter to the media and in his blog, citing the relevant laws of Trinidad and Tobago.
Read the relevant section of the Municipal Corporations Act
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