Finance Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke has criticized a recent report from the Caribbean Policy Research Institute, CAPRI for not adequately assessing the government‘s support to the most vulnerable, during the Covid pandemic under the CARE Programme.

CAPRI had claimed that the CARE Programme was ineffective in reaching the needy due to the informal nature of many local businesses and the bureaucratic requirements of the programme that these people were unable to meet.

In Parliament yesterday (September 28), Opposition Spokesman on Finance Julian Robinson expressed appreciation for Dr. Clarke‘s announcement of an increase in planned spending by the government for the pandemic response.

This after the supplementary estimates were tabled.

Mr. Robinson called on the government to pay particular attention to the most vulnerable, citing the findings of the recent CAPRI research.

In response, Dr. Clarke sought to clarify that the focus on the term ‘care‘ was misleading, since the governmental support under the CARE Programme was channelled through various agencies, such as PATH and Poor Relief.