Prime Minister Harris explains the role of one-on-one consultations

Published 20^th July 2020

Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source

Team Unity Administration is giving citizens and residents the opportunity to share their concerns through regular one-on-one consultations and town hall meetings, but Prime Minister Dr the Hon Timothy Harris is clarifying that one-on-one sessions are meant to allow persons to share personal private issues with their parliamentary representatives.

Prime Minister Harris, who is the Area Parliamentary Representative for Constituency Number Seven, made the clarification on Sunday July 19 at the end of a marathon one-on-one session which had started on Saturday July 18 at the Constituency office on Main Street in Tabernacle Village.

“We have persons who had issues related to health – their own physical and more private personal conditions,” explained the Honourable Prime Minister. “But generally it is the type of issues that we would expect because one-on-one is really a private setting in which you give people a chance to say what is on their mind, rather than to hear unnecessarily what is on the mind of the other people, which largely the town hall bring out more community and national matters.”

He further added: “The one-on-one consultations are intended to be very private, confidential issues which persons care to share with their parliamentary representative in the hopes of getting some action on them.”

Over 100 persons had the opportunity to share their concerns with Dr Harris on Saturday at a session that was supposed to come to an end at 1:00 pm but ended at 5:30 pm still with a number who did not meet him. He informed them that he would spare some of his time after church service on Sunday, which he did to the joy of those who had missed the opportunity to talk to him.

“We discussed a wide range of issues of concern to the constituents and the citizens and residents who came from other areas of St. Kitts and Nevis,” said the Prime Minister.

A number of persons who saw him had concerns with respect to jobs, not just in the context of unemployment but also people already in jobs who want to know the pathway to their own promotion and what they should do next. Issues in relation to the thousand dollars pay-out by Social Security were raised, and some suggested that there was the need for a hotline so that persons can call and know where the status of their claim is.

Other popular issues that came out included housing, lands, and persons looking for property in the context of investment proposition, and there were those who were contemplating loans and wanted to get advice. Some people came to speak about concerns with respect to their children, and others who had an interest in acquiring and were preparing for themselves taxi licence. 

According to the Prime Minister, there were non-nationals and some of them had issues in relation to the processing of work permits, and others in the processing of citizenship. He however observed that with the Covid-19 pandemic, several activities had to be reprioritised with lower staff on the job. However, as Government moves more into normalcy and regularise staff, issues of employment will now be addressed.

“There are a wide range of issues that impact upon people and we want to thank them for coming and share, so that we are in a better position to see opportunities and challenges through their eyes and through their own expression, and to formulate government policy with respect to those matters of concern to them,” noted Prime Minister Harris. “It was a wide range of issues and a wide range of topics and we were able to add clarity, to provide information, to update, to inform and to advise.