30% of all donations to RDA comes from UK and private sector

Thirty cents of every dollar the Recovery & Development Agency (RDA receives from donations and other non-loan funds have been found to come from the United Kingdom and the private sector.

The RDA’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, Anthony McMaster gave that indication while thanking those two entities at a recent contract signing ceremony.

He said: “To date, apart from loan funds, of all the funds that have been used in the redevelopment of the territory I can say that 30 percent of those funds have been through grants, whether through the UK government or the private sector … [This] is a very good partnership.”

$2.8 million from grants

The RDA’s total expenditure and its total income as of October 31 has been outlined in the agency’s monthly report posted on Wednesday, November 25.

It stated that a total of $56.8 million have been invested in the territory’s recovery which makes up both government and external funders.

According to those statistics provided, $2.8 million of the donated funds derived from “external grants philanthropic funders”, while $10 million came from the government’s treasury fund and $44 million from the loans provided by the Caribbean Development Bank.

Protocols must be followed to access funds

McMaster also cleared the air as it relates to how the RDA handles donated funds. He said these donated funds are processed in a systematic manner. This, he said, ensures full transparency.

“As you would see from our many updates and through our monthly reporting, these funds go into the trust account, so they’re not lodged directly into the RDA’s bank account. They go into the trust account and until we are able to provide sufficient evidence to the trustees that those funds will be used for exactly what the donors say. We cannot get them drawn down,” he explained.

“So that provides some level of assurance to anyone who has an interest in donating to any cause, whether it be to a solar programme, educational programme, sporting facilities, your funds will be utilised for those purposes and those purposes only,” McMaster assured.

To date, the RDA has contracted a total of $23.4 million in projects, which have been mostly awarded to locals who have received 89 percent of that sum with $20.9 million. International contractors have received $1.3 million while regional contractors have received $1.2 million.