Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai said Campbelltown and Micobie are prepared for village elections, when she visited the two Region Eight communities over the weekend to conduct financial audits and address other concerns.
According to a Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA) press release, Sukhai said both villages had prepared and mounted their voters’ and candidates’ lists for their village council elections and that she expected the elections to be done fairly and to address residents’ concerns.
She told Campbelltown residents that one of the main objectives of her visit was to oversee the auditing of the council’s financial records, which she is empowered to do under the Amerindian Act. The Act also allows the ministry to select at random, two villages to be audited every year.
The team, with support from the council, was able to complete the process in one day. However, Sukhai charged residents that the onus is on every council to manage its finances, in addition to which the Act stipulates that it makes a report to the village about its standings every three months.
The minister also urged the council to issue receipts for payments made in order to prevent any problems in its accounting system. “When money is spent, it must be authorised and documented in the ledger and have current balances,” she said. An inventory of the community’s assets was also complied during the audit.
At the same time, Sukhai said she was pleased that since December Campbell-town has focused on acquiring funds from mining as it generates the most income. However, she called for construction on the guest house to be sped-up and better managed and added that greater consensus must be encouraged when the village is undertaking a project in order to get maximum support.
At Micobie, Sukhai told villagers to ensure that their names are on the voters’ list. Since her last visit to the community, Micobie has constructed a benab and works are ongoing on a church. “Village development is not the responsibility of the village council alone, it is the responsibility of every single member of the village,” she told the meeting. While mining is one of the most lucrative ventures in Region Eight, Micobie was urged to diversify to gain more benefits.
