By Samuel Sukhnandan
The return of Local Government Elections to Guyana and initiatives being undertaken to strengthen the system have been touted as major achievements of the coalition Government.
Delivering his contribution to Budget 2018 debate, Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan said that the Government was moving to return to local organs the right to manage their own affairs.
Bulkan accused the previous Government of stifling the local Government system and depriving it of resources, asserting that this would not be allowed to continue.
“Local Government will no longer be stifled in this country,” Bulkan stated while receiving loud applause from his colleagues on the Government side of the National Assembly on Tuesday.
He said Budget 2018 made substantial provision (G$1.6 billion) to advance the work towards empowering and equipping local democratic organs to be effective and meaningful partners in the development of Guyana.
According to him, the Budget also caters for both the vision of Local Government being a critical partner in development and the continued strategic direction of rebuilding the institutions.
Responding to assertions made by the Opposition that the Local Government system was in total chaos, the Minister said that some of its members showed total disregard for the Local Government system.
“A party that treated a Local Government system as if it only had cosmetic value and organs and councillors to never be heard, the question of valuation will be resisted,” he opined.
Bulkan went on to state that the Opposition was wedded to the centralised system of governance, so much so that it was not interested in the restoration and functionality of the local governance system.
The Minister emphasised that the aim was to reject ‘winner takes it all’ policies, and encourage people to embrace local democracy, especially since it was in keeping with constitutional provisions.
Bulkan also spoke of the highly-anticipated Local Government Elections next year for which he said Budget 2018 catered.
“This budget lays the foundation for a country that is more inclusive, cohesive and hence more sustainable. This budget provides for the working man, the business man, the young, the pensioner.”
Meanwhile, Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Collin Croal spoke passionately about what he dubbed a corrupt local government system that did not recognise the elected leaders. He said this was started under the coalition Government based on its approach to issues.
While noting that most of the local democratic organs are controlled and dominated by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP) owing to its election victories produced in that area for 2015, Croal said that the Government must learn to accept that these senior functionaries were put there by the people.
The MP also highlighted some of the dismal performances of the local authorities as stated in the Finance Ministry’s Mid-Year Report. “The average for Regions 1-10, their performance was 29.5 per cent…average implementation within the last half of the year of 63.92 per cent,” he pointed out.
Croal questioned the rationale behind the valuation exercise that was announced by Government during the 2018 Budget presentation, querying why there has not been an increase in the subvention when Bulkan has claimed that the exercise was not aimed at raising taxation in the local authority areas. However, he did point out that Bulkan has repeatedly declared that the system was deprived of revenue streams.
“Having had over 200 increase taxation measures in 2017, they couldn’t find any more to put it on the national level. So, therefore, they are now moving to the local authorities. There is a motive probably in moving in this direction,” the Opposition MP told the National Assembly on Tuesday.
Speaking about the recent renewal of the regional tender boards which saw several new members being appointed and old ones replaced, Croal claimed that most of these new appointees were known supporters of the current Government, which lacked transparency.
