244 employed under special post-Maria job program PM Skerrit says

Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, has announced that 244 people now have jobs under a special employment program initiated after the passage of Hurricane Maria.

He spoke on Kairi’s Next Level Program earlier this week.

“So far we have placed 244 people under the special employment programme (and) are now receiving a salary paid for by the government of Dominica… he said.

In January this year, the government announced what was described as a “special employment program” in the wake of the devastating category 5 hurricane which ravaged the island in September 2017.

It said it would target personal job holders made redundant, displaced or otherwise out of a job as a result of Hurricane Maria and will be for both the public and private sectors.

The government also said in January that 1,100 jobs will be created by the program.

The Prime Minister said earlier this week, in addition to the 224 already employed, more will soon have jobs.

“Very soon we will place another batch of people who have applied,” he stated.

He stated another 42 people have been placed in the National Employment Program (NEP) and pointed to the launch of that program in Marigot earlier this week.

He commended those who made themselves available to work under the NEP in Marigot.

“Marigot is ours, Marigot is ours to keep clean, to keep beautiful and to develop and all I can say to the people of Marigot that the government is with you and continues to be with you to help you through your challenges,” Skerrit stated.

He said that $1.5-million was sent to the village council in Marigot to help with fixing roofs and homes and more is on the way.

“The spending is $1.5 (million) and an additional amount will be transferred to help more people in Marigot,” the Prime Minister remarked.

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20 Comments

  1. Karl Orndem
    May 25, 2018

    Ok but what does that say about the state of the private sector? how do these employment programs improve our economy. These jobs are not sustainable and these NEP and SEP workers cannot even take a loan to improve their current situations. More support to the private sector must be given.

    • Toto
      May 25, 2018

      You are right, that is not sustainable. Is like keeping a corpse alive with artificial respiration. If a business can not survive by itself it is not a business but a government dept.

  2. May 24, 2018

    Chupes, that’s just a drop in the ocean of commess, Skerrit has created in D/ca and seeing that he is a compulsive liar, I won’t believe a word he says :-D :-D

  3. See What we do boy
    May 24, 2018

    So there are employed under the NEP, some employed under the special post Maria program, some foreigners employed I guess under the “NON competent roofers, carpenters and electrician”, since according to Skerrit our builders are not competent, some nurses from Cuba are employed under the “local nurses running” program, some employed under the special village council program, while some are employed under the sell passport programs. Boy look workers boy maybe Skerrit must be thankful for hurricanes so people could be employed before the election. Boy see what we did to Dominica; see what we come down to

  4. jungle
    May 24, 2018

    244 Labourites!

    • Anonymous
      May 25, 2018

      Not necessarily but they certainly are beholden to the DLP leadership. That ins itself can be the cause of deep, but unspoken resentment.

  5. Maria
    May 24, 2018

    Skerrit has employed 240 under his program and he has to import 100 Cubans to repair roofs. My God, when a government has to bring in Cubans to repair roofs for its citizens while thousands of young men and women are unemployed this says a lot about the governance and people of the country.
    Nine months after Hurricane Maria, the government has not trained one single person in construction.
    Just imagine if the government, through the Youth Skills Training Program, had embarked on a program to train men and women in the various trades, with practical experience on damaged buildings using professionals to assist. This could have been done in all the villages. Now we would have an army of construction workers ready for the challenge.
    They did not do that, yet they boast of 240 people employed cleaning drains, cutting grass and planting flowers. Leaving the garbage on the road sides. You see them all over the place, NEP, in gangs of ten watching everyone that’s passing. Give me a…

    • May 25, 2018

      “Nine months after Hurricane Maria, the government has not trained one single person in construction”.

      @Maria, I hope you do not think that your statement above is a smart one, eh!

      This is a critical time for our country, there is a lot of repairing that must be done as soon as possible, that an immediate call for professionals or skilled workers; but here you are talking about training, after nine months of a destructive hurricane, to bring things back to normal; are you kidding?

      Would you be happy to go to the hospital with a severe “heart attack” and have the doctors and nurses who are in training treating you? Or do you understand how dangerous that could be?

      If you people would learn to feed your minds with the substance of wisdom and understanding of things which are happening or is to happen, maybe; just maybe there would be a lot less stupid comments being posted on this News Board. It is just too bad that you people do not know it.

  6. NKRUMAH KWAME
    May 24, 2018

    WHERE, in Dominica have these jobs been created??? “An additional amount will be transferred …” How much, sir? And by the way, Marigot is not YOURS.
    HOTEP!

  7. Jokers
    May 24, 2018

    Keep up the great job pm. In everything good u do for this country there will always be haters. I guess they playing there role as opposition.

  8. Satan is a liar!
    May 24, 2018

    But I know Skerrit does lie bad boy; I wonder if his Father was a liar from the beginning? But then again I don’t know who was or is his father, since is his mama last name he carrying.

    • Norman Thomas
      May 28, 2018

      Thank God you have a father. but tell me What have you and your special father done for the economic good of Dominica.? I know” practically nothing”..Sir in this trying time, we all need to support the PM because he has so much on his plate. We Dominicans love to knock each other especially those who have little or nothing to offer. It is high time to tell it like it is. Based on what is happening , the PM should be commended for all the tasks that he and his team are putting in place.

  9. Satan is a liar!
    May 24, 2018

    Satan lying so much that even when he speaks a half truth I still cannot believe him. Of course you know I am referring to Satan himself so don’t accuse me of calling anyone Satan DNO. In fact the last part of John 8:44 says, when he speaks he always lies because lying is his nature, for he has been a liar from the very beginning.

    • The one of a kind
      May 24, 2018

      Someone says we have 244 people employed…where does Satan fit into this? Highly doubt skeritt is Satan..did Satan speak with you????
      Incredibly stupid how some people almost always has a religious remark when it doesn’t even make sense

  10. BIM
    May 24, 2018

    Thank you Honorable Skerrit. You are truly chosen by God to be the leader of the people of Dominica. A leader who is of the people, for the people, by the people. May God continue to bless you with the knowledge , wisdom and understanding necessary to lead the people of Dominica.

    • Zor Sot
      May 24, 2018

      :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: ….. you do not know that when the government is paying 80% of the labour force salaries indicates the country economy is in serious trouble….. this indicates that the private sector gone and that all sectors are in serious problems…. wait there

    • Neville
      May 24, 2018

      As long as there is people living in Dominica like this one there is little hope that Skerrit will vacate the John of PM. This is a typical example of one of his followers being quite content with some crumbs and at the same time watching THEIR PM getting richer by the day. People like that must be mentally retarded.

    • The accursed thing
      May 24, 2018

      But@BIM, I sure cannot understand how a person could be chosen by God and at the same time God destroying his work so much, year after year with rain, storm like Erika, hurricane like Maria, increase of road fatalities, all manner of crime, increase of sukuya and obia, our bridges are all compromised and falling, increase in poverty and unemployment, our once powerful banana industry died to the point that we cannot even export a hand of bananas as if our grounds are cursed, our citrus under curse, coconut industry died, Ross University is closed and we don’t know if it will even open again and you associating Skerrit with God to the point that he was chosen by God? God fighting against himself man? Boy only Satan that fighting against himself and therefore based on his works, I have every reason to believe is judgement we seeing. I was young and now old and never saw villages in Dominica had to be relocated and as soon as they moved to new homes, they too we’re destroyed

      • @The accursed thing, if you really understand that a Hurricane or a Tropical Storm, is the way that God destroys a person’s work–whoever he or she is and whatever is that work– then you are right to call yourself “an accursed thing”, you see!

        Because one who is accursed is separated by the God of Life, in Love and Holiness, therefore you have no understanding of the things of the World around you

        And if you think that God is destroying the works of PM Skerrit, why are you all complaining that he does nothing for Dominica? And why would God be destroying the Prime Minister’s work, which always affects the whole of Dominica? Huh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or are you living in a twilight zone of darkness, so you know nothing of the light?

        Come on now you people, enough with those stupid thoughts–the World is reading!

  11. Dominican
    May 24, 2018

    Since this programme apparently operates separately from the NEP does this mean that people salaries are being funded by the tax payers on behalf of private companies? People do need help but this would be the wrong way to go about this as it would have two consequences that are discriminatory and unacceptable:
    – private companies making profit subisdised through the national purse.
    – distortion of fair competition for those private companies, which are excluded by the authorities from this form of assistance.
    I sincerely hope my reading of this is wrong.

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