UWP tells Government to stop victimizing bona fide farmers & fishers, by politicizing World Bank Grant

​The United Workers Party (UWP) tells the DLP Government stop victimizing bona fide farmers & fishers and stop politicizing the disbursement of the World Bank’s Agricultural Emergency Response Grant (AERG), describing the government’s conduct as blatant injustice. UWP Leader Lennox Linton says given the number of recipients of the funds who are not involved in farming or fishing, and the number of farmers and fishers still on the merry-go-round of disrespect, and who waiting to receive their entitlement, it is now clear that the Skerrit led DLP administration has abused the 18-million-dollar World Bank grant for partisan political purposes.
 
The UWP says in the interest of fairness, equity, transparency and accountability in the utilization of post Maria financial assistance from the world community, the World Bank is duty bound to order a full forensic investigation into the issues that have made the program a hotbed of controversy. The controversial issues include:
 
1) The confusion over whether the assistance program was for farm rehabilitation to revitalize the Agricultural sector, or for social protection /poverty alleviation.
2) The impossibility of achieving the agriculture revival benefits intended by the donors, and widely expected by the people of Dominica, because large amounts of the grant were distributed as political hand-outs from the ruling DLP.
3) The use of Extension Officers in the Ministry of Agriculture to prepare a bona fides list of farmers and place them into two categories based on the size of their commercial output; and the subsequent authorization of operatives in the Office of Prime Minister, to adjust that list, based on political considerations.
4) The high percentage of persons benefitting as large commercial farmers in the PM’s constituency compared to far more productive farming communities.
5) The hundreds of farmers across all agricultural districts whose written complaints about inadequate payments or no payments at all remain unresolved
6) The blame and threats directed at Agricultural Extension Officers, for a program executed by operatives in the Office of the Prime Minister who are constantly praised by the Prime Minister for work that has placed significant resources allocated to farmers, at the disposal of non-farmers.
The UWP is calling on the government to publish the criteria approved by the World Bank for the distribution of the grant, and immediately end this reckless partisan political anti-resilience behavior, in the management of post Hurricane Maria rebuilding initiatives, and resources