On the Corner with EPOC | Residents want clarity on tax dollar benefits

Residents of Jones Town in Arnett Gardens, St Andrew, say they need to see better management of their dollars and get a clearer understanding of how they are being spent to benefit the ordinary man.

The Gleaner visited Ninth Street in the community, commonly referred to as ‘Jungle’, for the continuation of The Gleaner’s On The Corner with EPOC series.

Barrington Maze, an elder in Jones Town, said that the community is enjoyable but that there is no infrastructure for the youth.

He said, “Nothing nuh lay out for dem ... . This is a very beautiful country, and the people pay dem tax. If we go to the shop and buy a pound of flour, we pay tax. If we go on the bus, we pay tax, but at the end of the day, where is the tax, where it goes?”

Maze said that he does not understand many of the developments taking place across the country.

“Certain infrastructure and things that I see happening in Jamaica now, I don’t understand, and the people dem need to understand because if they understand, they will go along and work with what they see, but if dem get frustrated and don’t know where they going, they not going anywhere”, Maze said.

According to Maze, people generally have no clue where their tax dollars go or what they are doing for Jamaicans.

He said, “The residents don’t know because they don’t see what’s going on, and when you tek the money from one place and put it to another and shift it from there and people don’t understand, they are frustrated.”

Maze also told the On the Corner forum that the stigma of the area being a ghetto needed to be removed.

He said, “You can’t live in a community and don’t have no water and you paying for all these things ... .They are ordinary people – nice kids and nice people – so we need to get these things out to the people so they can understand and can follow and get the best of what dem want. This is what we are asking for.”

ALLOCATING RESOURCES

Chairman of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) Keith Duncan told Maze and the gathering that the utilisation of the tax that people pay was another thing that EPOC wanted to get across.

He said, “We want to see our tax dollars spent properly, effectively. Our tax dollars must be spent so that we get the benefit and minimise or reduce corruption.”

Mark Golding, member of parliament for St Andrew Southern and Opposition spokesman on finance, said that since Jamaica’s fiscal situation has improved, the country should begin to see results in infrastructure.

He said, “The fiscal situation has improved; the debt of the country has been cut significantly in a relatively short space of time. Yet, in our community, there is no water for months on end. Street lights are not being fixed although we are being promised that they will be fixed ... . So many of them are still not working.”

Golding said that it appeared as if the lives of the people of Jones Town were not relevant.

“Is like we don’t matter ‘round here. Why aren’t the benefits [getting to us]? All these people here pay the sacrifice same way ‘cause the tax on fuel, dem a tek bus and taxi, and some of dem drive car, too, so dem a pay the tax on fuel, too, and GCT.

“When dem buy goods, dem afi pay tax on the goods, so why the water situation can’t improve for people here and people ‘round here? The prioritisation of things in the system is like certain people don’t matter as much as other people, and we can’t live so ‘cause Jamaica want to see everybody uplift, and there must be equity in how you allocate resources. Communities like these need proper infrastructure, proper street lights and garbage disposal, and sewage system. If we get them thing deh, we alright”, Golding said.

Duncan, who was also recently elected president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, told the gathering that because of the work that the Government has been putting into the economy since 2013, Jamaica has more resources and more fiscal space, which means that the country has more money to spend.

He suggested that there be a long-term plan for the supply of water, stating, “ We don’t want just a truck come and sell water. We want sustainable solutions.“