The signing of a US $22.5 million grant agreement for the Trust Fund at the World Bank (see related story) is obviously good news. It comes less than a week after the first $9.2 million from the hurricane-recovery monies made available by the Netherlands had been placed in a designated account.
That amount was for repairs to the police and fire stations as well as other public buildings, shelters, social housing and roofs, plus to pay for satellite phones, material resources and training for emergency personnel, as well as weather equipment.
The latest grant mentioned in today’s paper is almost three times as big and will be used towards a new Social Registry System complementing government’s existing information technology (IT) network and the Income Support Training Programme. The latter’s continuation is important because it allowed 900 personnel of the Sonesta Group, Sunwing Great Bay Beach Resort and other closed businesses in the hospitality sector to receive training with stipends, thus helping to prevent layoffs.
The intention is to now open courses in three modules to a greater number of tourism, construction and maritime workers. Organisers are seeking to register 150 new participants and people in paid employment no more than three days per week would do well to make use of such opportunities.
Despite all this and the announcement about a month ago that the first $55 million of the 470-million-euro Trust Fund had been released, certain persons still see it fit to sow doubt regarding the Dutch assistance; for example, on radio, going as far as to call it a “Ghost Fund.” Unfortunately, some folks simply have a hard time accepting reality when it’s not in keeping with what they want to believe.
