Grenada’s Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Claudette Joseph has cited several cases of low rate of project implementation under the former New National Party (NNP) government that affected the flow of grant funding and soft loans to the island by donors.
According to Sen. Joseph a number of the beneficiary projects for the people of Grenada were never implemented during the term in office of the NNP regime.
She mentioned the situation with the Climate Smart Agriculture and Rural Enterprise Programme (SAEP) which is a six (6) year Programme (2018- 2024) funded by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Government of Grenada.
The senior government minister noted that SAEP, headed by former Manager of the Grenada Building & Loan Association, Byron Campbell has seen a mere 37% implementation rate with its projects.
The project is part of the Rural Development Unit of the Ministry of Finance.
It is a programme designed to focus on assisting beneficiaries improve their livelihoods through skills training, investments in agriculture, teaching Climate Smart Practices and providing Business Skills Training and Technical services to Rural Enterprises in the rural communities throughout the state of Grenada.
Minister Joseph also said that at the national level, the rate of implementation of projects under Mitchell’s NNP administration was “way below 50%” especially for projects funded by the Washington-based World Bank and other international and regional donor agencies.
Among those affected projects she cited were the World Bank Digitalisation project, as well as projects in Agriculture, Climate Change and Education.
The senior government minister disclosed that a number of projects that were intended to advance, enhance and lift up citizens “were neglected” and affected by “low implementation rate” due to under-staffed government departments and government affiliated departments.
She said that the newly created Ministry of Mobilisation, Transformation and Implementation headed by senior Minister Andy Mitchell has a lot of work to do in order to rescue the situation.
She promised that the new rulers “will lift the implementation rate of these projects as we lift the lives and livelihoods of our people.”
Minister Joseph appealed to Grenadians to have a little patience with the new administration as it begins the task to fix the inherited problems and issues.
“I just want to ask you to bear with us, be patient with us as we work to arrest a very dire situation that we inherited,” she said.