The Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) has vowed to sustain protests across Dominica until the $32,000 budgeted for the monthly rent of PM Roosevelt Skerrit as well as an additional $32,000 earmarked for his residence monthly maintenance is revoked. CCM’s interim president Earl Bruno said it is unfeeling for the prime minister to spend $64,000 every month for rent and maintenance when the official minimum wage is EC4.05 in Dominica.
Bruno said the CCM will stage massive protests in Roseau and other parts of the country until the executive reverses the proposed expenditure. The interim president said the Cabinet was wrong to approve the rent and maintenance of a temporary residence for the PM in Morne Daniel since the budgeted money is sufficient to wipe off unemployment from the island if spent on job creation every month.
“We have a wide range of protest to take place in Dominica because we have the minimum wage which is still at EC$4.05,” Bruno said. “We have also, the unemployment rate at an all-time high and also the jobs being awarded to foreign contractors only, even on the expense of our own taxpayers as well as our passport sale.”
During the demonstration staged by the group on Saturday, protesters attempted to approach the residence of the prime minister but were stopped by a heavy barricade of police officers.
Bruno said the CCM will continue to protest in major cities until the government listens to the people and undertake projects that will raise the standard of life for Dominican citizens. The group said they will continue to mount pressure on whatever government is in office to do what is right for the people, and that the CCM is newly revamped and restructured to carry that mandate into the future.
“We are moving progressively because CCM is a movement that is going to be in Dominica as long as life tarries,” Bruno asserted. “This CCM group is going to be there to keep pressing the Government of the day to ensure that they work with the interest of the citizens of the country and not for themselves or their outside friends. We will continue to revamp, restructure and put all the necessary mechanisms in place that will safeguard this group.”
Bruno said the CCM will soon dispatch a letter of protest to President Charles Savarin of Dominica over the rental issue, and to other organizations across the country. Meanwhile, host of the CCM program on Q95 FM, John Blanchard, and Nurse Rosie Felix as well as officials of the UWP opposition party continue to voice their disagreement with the budgeted property rental for the prime minister. “Corruption kills a nation, corruption destroys families and corruption destroys healthcare,” Nurse Felix emphasized.
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