KINGSTON, Jamaica—Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester North West, Mikael Phillips, has joined the call for an increase in the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), arguing that MPs are being asked to fill roles where State agencies have retreated.

He made the call on September 22 during his contribution to the State of the Constituency Debate in the House of Representatives. Phillips joins at least three other Opposition MPs and one Government member who, in recent days and weeks, have called for the CDF to be increased from the current sum of $20 million annually. All have said the amount is inadequate to meet the growing needs of their constituents.

“Because most State agencies have completely retreated from their operational duties, a dangerous systemic misconception has taken root across our communities. Today, from this honorable floor, I must correct the record and draw a clear line of constitutional accountability,” Phillips said.

He told the Parliament that that in his constituency and across Jamaica, “The Member of Parliament is the legislator, not a contractor, the MP can only act when central government budgets the funds and release the funds”.

Phillips said it was “an illusion of executive power [that the MP can do more]”, as every day his constituency office is besieged by citizens “who are understandably furious when a tax operator breaks an axle in Mile Gully, or when a family is cut off from primary health care in St Paul due to a collapsed roadway”.

“They look directly to the MP,” he said.

According to the Opposition MP, the public assumes that the MP sits on a vault of infrastructure funds and is simply choosing to withhold relief. “The truth is that the CDF is a miniscule, discretionary allocation intended strictly for small, social upliftment, education grants and micro and community initiatives. It was never designed, and is mathematically incapable, of absorbing multi-million dollar projects,” he said.

With the shortcomings of the CDF laid bare, Phillips said, “We have to make Government agencies work so we (MPs) no longer have to be the welfare office of the State”.
Opposition MP for Westmoreland Eastern Dr Dayton Campbell and Government MP Duane Smith representing St Andrew North West, also used portions of their State of the Constituency Debate presentations on September 22 to call for an increase in the CDF.

There have also been calls from Opposition members Phillip Paulwell who represents East Kingston and Port Royal, and Dr Angela Brown-Burke, the MP for St Andrew Soth West, for an increase in the CDF.

-Lynford Simpson