With a number of costs surfacing in relation to the handling of the aftermath of Category 4 Hurricane Beryl, the Government is set to present to parliament a supplementary appropriation bill.
According to Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who was at the time speaking on WE FM’s Issue At Hand program, said that a standing committee of finance would be meeting today ahead of the Thursday’s sitting of the House of Assembly, where they will seek the approval of $140 million in funds.
“On Wednesday, there would be a standing committee of finance of the House of Assembly would meet and would consider a supplementary estimate and a supplementary appropriation bill to go to Parliament the next day. This is the first set of supplementary estimates and supplementary appropriation bill for this stage of addressing the disaster and the consequences of Hurricane Beryl. Obviously, there’s a lot of focus on relief and cleaning up, and there are early steps in it for the early stages of recovery.
We will have to go back to the House for additional appropriations. We did the same thing, as you may recall, Cecil, when we went after the pandemic in 2020 and the volcanic eruptions in 2021, and within two to three weeks of each of those, we were in the Parliament appropriating special monies for the COVID emergency, for the volcanic eruptions, and now we have to do the same thing in respect of Hurricane Beryl.” Dr. Gonsalves said.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, on July 1st 2024, was severely impacted by the passage of category 4 Hurricane Beryl, damaging infrastructure on the mainland, but brought significant devastation to the Southern Grenadines, where close to 95 per cent of homes were destroyed and deaths reported.
