Yvonne Webb

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Chan­dresh Shar­ma yes­ter­day warned new­ly-elect­ed coun­cil­lors to re­sist any temp­ta­tion to be­come cor­rupt.

He told 131 of the 134 elect­ed mem­bers present for a brief­ing of their roles and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, at the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion, to make sure that the mon­ey in their pock­ets was what they had earned. "Make sure the mon­ey that comes in your pock­et and stays in your pock­et is mon­ey that you have earned...Don't let it come from any­where else," Shar­ma said. Shar­ma said too much tax­pay­ers' mon­ey had been wast­ed through cor­rupt means, on un­fin­ished bil­lion-dol­lar projects un­der the last ad­min­is­tra­tion.

"We don't want you to qual­i­fy in that area again," he said. "Peo­ple vot­ed for you be­cause they want a new way of do­ing things...They want a right way. "When­ev­er we waste mon­ey though cor­rup­tion, you de­ny some­body. You de­ny a spray for dengue fever, you de­ny a bed at the hos­pi­tal, you de­ny ad­di­tion­al play parks for our kids to go." He cau­tioned the elect­ed mem­bers that they had to for­get par­ty sym­bols and serve the en­tire coun­try, not just their friends and rel­a­tives.

Shar­ma al­so promised the mem­bers that he would be tak­ing a note to Cab­i­net soon to en­sure that they had of­fices in their elec­toral dis­tricts and cell­phones paid for by the State.