Government went back to Parliament yesterday to vote for a $45 536 691 supplemental from the Consolidated Fund.
The money measure comes 11 days after the Budget and is expected to go towards many items, including payments for the police, the adjusted salaries of janitors and general workers, allowances and maintenance money, new posts, street lights, the loan for Caves of Barbados and a project at Consett Bay, St John.
There was a $10 million request for the Attorney General’s Office, with Attorney General Dale Marshall telling the House of Assembly that more than $4 million was to pay salaries and allowances and other police-related expenses.
He said there had been tremendous challenges “keeping boots on the ground”, even recently. He explained that 60 to 70 officers, or five per cent of the service, had been in isolation at one point during the COVID-19 pandemic, even going as high as ten per cent when people were in quarantine.
“This then has ramifications because we don’t dare tell people that you can’t put boots on the ground because people are in isolation,” he said. (AC)
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