Govt, Communities Ministry playing ‘GAM’ with taxpayers’ money

Dear Editor,

The Government through its Ministry of Communities is playing ‘GAM’ with taxpayers’ money under the pretext of advancing an inclusive development agenda. In reality, the game is synonymous with, and links one’s recollection to the perhaps forgotten marble game in which children would consistently miss the target, when there was nothing meaningful to do.

The fact is that the Government has woefully failed citizens on many local government fronts. In particular, the deliberate delay in the establishment of the Local Government Commission as the constitutionally approved institution, to employ meaningful mechanisms which will deliver tool and fine-tune inclusive development and complementary approaches to acceptable governance.

There is no doubt that the substituted approach being employed by the Minister, seeks to impose a conditional directive of Government’s influence to local government areas where they have little leadership control. Instead of the Commission, we witness targeted diversion attempts to coordinate directives to Regional and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils on the first hand, and more recently, to municipalities. The flawed approach has numerous defaults which are deceptive and intended to cover-up the impotence of the Government towards the constitutional local government framework.

The Municipal Conference held over the last weekend was attended by the Mayors, Deputy Mayors and Councillors, and the Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of APNU/AFC controlled municipalities and regions respectively. This gathering includes staff from the Communities Ministry and other invited guests basically for the purpose of photo opportunities. It is noted that while the Mayors and Deputy Mayors, ‘only’, along with Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of the PPP controlled municipalities and regions were also invited to participate in the Conference, many rightfully opted to stay away.

Although the agenda touted an opportunity for laying a central plank toward Management training and Capacity building, the bottom line is that a framework for accountability in public office is already established. Further, the agenda suggested timelines that would not have allowed for any detailed or meaningful exchange of technical or improvement strategies. As such, the intent is strongly recognised to be linked to the positioning of APNU/AFC constituency holders on a body that would determine obligations for other local government areas.

It was also touted at the Conference that the Guyana Association of Municipalities (GAM), has a critical role to play in the emergence of “developmental” local governments by building the capacity of their members to adopt good local governance practices and promote good local development. At the same time, it must be recognised that the current legal framework establishes the aforementioned functions as a responsibility of the Local Government Commission which is not being moved upon because it is expected to exercise balance which the APNU/AFC do not desire in PPP/C won local government areas.

So what are we really advancing? It seems much more rational to fix the internal structures in accordance with the applicable laws and then do any required adjustments. If the Minister cannot rationalise, he must therefore provide reasonable and grounds for his repeated failures. It is known that the Mayoral sessions held are not likely to have any major fiscal impacts in the short- or long-term, as the municipalities are still dependent on funding recouped through the local governments structures or the appropriations of Parliament which are normally based on previously approved timelines and approaches.

Perhaps therefore, Minister Bulkan has achieved his partisan structure of control when one looks at the newly-elected executives as follows: President, Mayor Holland; Vice President, Mayor Marshall; Secretary, Mayor Wynter; Treasurer, Mayor Chase Green; Assistant Secretary/Treasurer, Councillor Fraser; and Committee Members, Mayors Ramoo and Beckles, and Deputy Mayor Negeshwari Lochanprasad, Darul Khan, Carolyn Caesar and Waneka Arrindell. It leaves all to wonder the way forward with this addition of another bureaucratic tier.

But how will this serve meaningful LGA development? Seemingly, if it cannot be fiscal, then the approach has to be dictatorial. It is known that the initial organisation of GAM formed during 2006, was themed towards gaining from the experiences of municipalities in other developed countries like Canada, which operates in accordance with the Constitution of those countries.

It is also noted that in the absence of any serious attempt to streamline the implementation of the Local Government Commission, Minister Bulkan in his ‘thank you’ speech, at the Mayoral Conference, pledged fullest cooperation to working with GAM in pursuit of President Granger’s vision of strengthening all three levels of administration; i.e. national, regional and local to spur and deepen national development.

With the partisan political game now introduced at the level of the municipalities, it is foreseen that this sort of arrangement without the legal and operational framework of the Commission, would only compromise the good work that has already been done by and at some of the municipalities. It means that decisions pertaining to development, policies and the legal frameworks would have to be taken to the Association for clearance before implementation and or action.

The Government is fully aware that they cannot interfere with the operations and the decisions taken by any municipality so the next best thing in sight for them to maintain control of the townships is to have their Mayors, Deputy Mayors and Councillors placed at the executive level of Guyana Association of Municipalities (GAM).

This move is seen as a strategic one for the APNU/AFC coalition Government to take and maintain control of all the municipalities, especially those that were won by the People’s Progressive Party. It is a game of GAM in which the marbles are likely to be lost.

Respectfully,

Neil Kumar