The National Unity Government is seeking to implement a new strategy through the Department of Public Works to guide more frequent debushing throughout the territory and generate new employment.
Premier Dr the Honourable Natalio Wheatley made the revelation as he addressed concerns from a news reporter who lamented that the government appears to only give such issues attention when the territory is subject to increased external attention.
“We want to be able to do bush cutting more frequently. In the past we’ve done it at specific times perhaps in and around festival time. We do it around Christmas time etcetera and there’s some challenges with how we’ve been doing it in the past, especially now with our new procurement rules. So we’ve come up with a different structure and strategy. Normally it has been giving out contracts to various persons to do bush cutting… What we are doing, we are going to do bush cutting through the Public Works Department”, he said.
Wheatley went on to say that he could not speak to the specifics of the matter as yet because he did not want to preempt Cabinet – which is yet to approve the initiative. However, he provided a brief summary of how it should work.
“The concept is, Public Works will hire temporary workers and will do bush cutting more frequently throughout the year. A number of persons will be hired through the public works department to be able to facilitate that”, he said.
This comes at a time when the premier has noted an increased focus on improving the overall appearance of the territory.