But, one reason the private sector may be somewhat reluctant is owing to the past record of fast and loose public spending that is typical of emergency responses.
As his government marks two years in office, we asked the Prime Minister what will keep the hungry hounds of reckless spending at bay:
Jules Vasquez
"it is a very tempting preposition indeed to say well we need to help people, we need to urgently roll out funds, we can't wait for the whole bureaucracy and we can't put everything to tender, even selective bid, we need to get the mattresses now - people need somewhere to sleep. As your government concludes its second year in office, is this a temptation for members of your government to say mek we start spend the money PM."
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well the temptation has been there from day 1. I mean because we all are elected and there is so much work to do, but we have to remember that this is the people's money and we're not going to waste it. With the constituency development fund, the monies that we have given them so far, they have to give account for every single dollar that is spent. They have to give invoices and they have to give sign from the people that received what we are giving them. So, that is one thing. Secondly, we can't throw away through the window all the hard work that we've done to get us so far where the IMF has given us a glowing report on the work that we've been doing, but at the same time we have to remember its about people, how is it that we can makes their lives better. We have said that one of the ways to get people out of poverty is starting them with a decent home. So this is an opportunity that we can take to be able to build these homes for our people."
