CDF committee chair threatens delinquent members

Chair of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) committee, Juliet Holness, may be forced not to approve projects submitted by some members of parliament (MPs), unless their meeting attendance improves.

Only four of nine MPs on the committee were present at last Tuesday’s meeting, which is held once a month.

Holness promised CDF Director (Programme Management Unit) Kedesha Campbell that she would hold discussions with the absentee members about the importance of being present.

Holness, who is MP for St Andrew East Rural, said if it means that the committee has to go back to the “draconian days” of not approving projects for MPs who are on the committee, but not attending meetings, the committee will.

“They will be warned and then we will take it from there,” Holness said.

She continued: “I will not be approving any of the projects for their constituencies and then they will have a better and deeper appreciation of how important it is that they are here.”

The main thrust of the CDF is to promote human and infrastructure development at the community and constituency levels through the establishment of sustainable development projects.

“This is a very critical committee and we are going to insist that it be respected by its membership,” Holness said.

She noted that some members of the committee have asked to meet virtually, but it is not practical.

“At the end of the day, I would not want to see us taking up a bad practise of approving projects outside of this session. We hardly ever do it, it’s once in a purple moon, in the case of a major emergency that we have to do a round-robin and most times it is to correct something that we would’ve already discussed. So, I want us to hold dear to those rules and procedures,” she said.

Members present were:

· Juliet Holness

· Homer Davis

· Heroy Clark

· Rhoda Moy Crawford

Members absent:

· Alando Terrelonge

· Ann-Marie Vaz

· Donovan Williams

· Julian Robinson

· Denise Daley

judana.murphy@gleanerjm.com