PEOPLE’S National Party Member of Parliament for South East St Andrew Julian Robinson says MPs are overwhelmed by the number of requests for assistance with tertiary fees which are way above what their constituency development fund allocations can handle.

“The volume of requests for assistance with tertiary fees has increased significantly,” Robinson told the Jamaica Observer on Monday. “The total Constituency Development Fund (allocation from the budget to every MP) is $14 million so as a member of Parliament there is very little you can do in a meaningful way to help the students at the tertiary level. It is a very challenging situation that we have to try to resolve,” Robinson pointed out.

He said there are several factors which have led to the current straits.

“Part of the challenge as you know, with the best will in the world, the Student’s Loan Bureau has not been able to satisfy the demand. A couple years ago there was only the University of the West Indies and the University of Technology, you now have 18 or 19 tertiary institutions and a lot of persons are now taking the opportunity to upgrade themselves, but the funding mechanisms are not there so invariably they turn to the members of parliament,” Robinson noted.

The first-time MP said his own method of coping with the demands might also merit a new approach.

“Out of the $14 million I allocate just over $3 million annually for fees and books and so on. It is absolutely inadequate. For tertiary students we can only give a small amount because on average the cheapest programme at any tertiary institution per term is like $150,000 to $200,000,” Robinson said.

“Now given that I only have $3 million, which has to deal with basic, primary and high schools, at maximum we contribute $20,000 to $25,000 per student. Again it is something I have to evaluate because unless the person has other sources of funding giving them $25,000 when the fee is $150,000 makes no sense,” he said.

The CDF, which is managed by the Office of the Prime Minister, assists MPs to meet the needs of their constituents and was originally known as the Social and Economic Support Programme. The name and some aspects of the programme were changed when the then Bruce Golding-led Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Administration came to power in September 2007. Under the present arrangement, each constituency is allocated $14 million. In its early days the allocation was $40 million, which then shrank to $20 million and then the current $14 million, due to economic constraints.

MPs are mandated to develop a five-year development plan for their constituencies outlining a menu of programmes and projects to be undertaken yearly with the assistance from the relevant agencies.