Dear Editor,
The Minister of Communities’ treatment of the established Local Government Commission (LGC) seeks to put asunder the marriage of Local Government Organs and the communities they are elected to serve. Contrary to his advocacy leading up to the passing of, and assent to, the Local Government Act, # 13 of 2012, we are now witnessing a more than opposite turnaround of intent.
Not so long ago, the duplicitous Ronald Bulkan, in his August 2013 speech on the matter to the Tenth Parliament, stated: “The Joint Task Force determined that the commission would monitor the activities of local government organs, some of which included the following: the commission will be empowered to monitor the activities of local government organs, some which include staffing matters, appointment of tribunals, disciplinary matters, hiring of personnel, remuneration matters, vacation and other leave, dismissal of personnel, receiving complaints, making rules and regulations, and regulating the operations of the local authorities. What is envisaged and proposed is a system that leads to, and allows for, greater autonomy. You can recall article 75 of the Constitution which mandates that as well as the devolution of powers.”
He further advanced that “what we want is for these local democratic organs to breathe freely, and that the oversight that they would be subject to should not be suffocating and subject only to ministerial control. These local democratic organs must be empowered, as is required by our Constitution. They must be able to take decisions in the best interest of their respective communities, not of some political party; it is all about local democracy.”
To date, after eons of delays towards establishment, the LGC is without an office; without any transportation, and the money that was allocated for the LGC by the Parliament is not being accounted for. The Commission is without any money, although appropriations were approved in the Budget for the year 2018. The bigger question is: What is happening to the Commission members’ stipends? Months have gone by and the members are awaiting their salaries/stipends.
It is known that the Commissioners have received scores of complaints, which they cannot act on due to the handed down suppression of the entity by the Bulkan-led Ministry, under which its finances and empowerment fall. From their shameless actions, one could easily see that the APNU/AFC is deliberately frustrating the members of the Commission to take action against the many delinquent staff.
While it cannot be denied that some NDC’s are doing their best, others are finding it extremely difficult to implement their work programme. The Regional Executive Officers (REOs) and Overseers are hell bent on taking political directives from the APNU/AFC. As a consequence, the NDCs are not getting their work done in the interest of the people.
Recently emerging is that there have been a number of negative activities by some REOs and Overseers, which is outright unacceptable. In a particular NDC, the Overseer has turned away numerous persons from paying their rates and taxes, and is demanding new property valuations as the new base for the taxes. This column wishes to make public the nasty situation of REOs enquiring as to whether particular rice farmers have PNCR membership cards before supporting works are done in their areas.
It is a travesty that persons in this employ, who have responsibility to provide service to the people, utilize their position to advance partisan political positions. Also, it is an extreme lawless and damning position of the APNU/AFC government to offer protection to the party stooges and political hacks who are placed in these positions to misbehave and stymie the programmes of elected councils. With the current approach, the impact of the 2016 Local Government Elections has turned out to be farcical.
The gestation period for the empowerment of the LGC, as in the period of the bill referred to by Mr Bulkan in his speech, has gone way beyond that acceptable for humans, elephants and asses. It is stifling the people, has stultified efficiency, and is leading to ultimate failure and decay.
Legitimately elected councillors are not allowed to function in a proper way, and the undermining of the councillors is a detriment to development.
The local democratic organs must be able to breathe freely, and the oversight that they are subject to should not be suffocating, and subject only to ministerial control.
Sincerely,
Neil Kumar
