Even though the Constitution entails autonomy for local government authorities this is not the case in reality, according to Vincent Alexander, co-chair of the body set up to shepherd reforms in this area.
Chapter VIII of the Constitution dealing with Local Democratic Organs states that Parliament shall provide that local democratic organs be autonomous and take decisions which are binding on their agencies and institutions, and on the communities and citizens of their areas.
In a telephone interview, Alexander, Co-Chair of the Joint Task Force on Local Government Reform, said that while the Constitution provides for the autonomy of the region, PPP/C and PNC governments never put in place the mechanisms for the Regional Demo-cratic Councils (RDC) to meet this objective.
For example, he said, the Regional Executive Officer (REO) or the clerk of the RDC should be appointed by the RDC as the chief executive but instead the REO is a political appointment made by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development and automatically performs the duties of the clerk of the RDC.
After his appointment by the local government ministry, the REO is then provided with a special letter from the Ministry of Finance confirming his role as accounting officer for the region.
“He who pays the piper calls the tune,” Alexander said, adding that the REO then feels obligated to the Ministry of Finance. This in turn could stymie the region’s work programme because the REO, though working on policies and programmes developed by the RDC, could choose not to carry out the mandates of the RDC regardless of what it says.
The issue came to the fore again last week after Region Four REO, Shafdar Alli, told Region Four Chairman, Clement Corlette, that he was following the government’s ban on advertising in Stabroek News even though the RDC was against this. The Region Four RDC subsequently passed a directive mandating that there be fairness and transparency in the dissemination of information by the region.
The duties of the RDC and other local democratic organs as stated in the Constitution are to maintain and protect public property, improve working and living conditions, promote the social and cultural life of the people, raise the level of civic consciousness, preserve law and order, consolidate the rule of law and order and safeguard the rights of citizens.
“Unless the central ministry is disposed towards the RDC,” Alexander said, “it could encourage the REO to act contrary to the wishes of the RDC as is now happening with the Region Ten (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) RDC in Linden. [This is] because the REO knows that he cannot be fired by the RDC once the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development feels comfortable with his performance and the RDC becomes the laughing stock.”
Alexander once served as REO for Region Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Islands) during the PNC administration.
He said there was need to address the appointment and functions of REOs in terms that would give the RDCs a degree of comfort in carrying out their work programmes and meeting their development objectives.
The role of the REOs has been under heavy scrutiny in recent years, particularly in Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) and Region Ten where the main opposition PNCR secured the majority of votes to head the regional government. Even though Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni) is headed by a PNCR-1G chairman, this is as a result of support from the AFC councillors as the PPP/C obtained more votes in the region.
Region Ten in particular has been complaining in recent years about the REO not working along with the RDC in the execution of its duties, but instead taking orders from the central ministry. The other regions are led by PPP/C elected chairmen.
Asked whether local government reform would address the establishment of a local government commission in keeping with Section 78(A) of the Constitution, which would deal with the appointment of REOs as some appear to believe it would, Alexander said the local government commission would be dealing with the staffing of municipalities and neighbourhood democratic councils (NDCs) and their delegated functions.
Section 78(A) of the Constitutions says “Parliament shall establish a Local Government Commission, the composition and rules of which empower the commission to deal with as deem fit, all matters related to the regulation and staffing of local government organs and with dispute resolution within and between local government organs.”
When established, the Local Government Commission will assume certain powers currently being exercised by the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development. And in the general scheme of current reforms, certain powers now held by the Minister of Local Government will pass to the various neighbourhood and municipal councils, not so much the RDCs.
Alexander said, “the major problem facing the RDCs is that they have never been empowered by devolved authority.”
Apart from being statutory bodies, they were never given real independent authority, he said, adding that all that was done was to delegate duties to the RDCs so that they merely act on behalf of the central ministry. “They don’t have their own administrative autonomy,” he said, because the legislators have not been serious about a decentralised decision-making process.
At this stage, he said, local government reform was addressing the RDCs and their functions apart from a kind of financial autonomy through a fiscal transfer legislation, which would set out a formula to allocate impartially to each local government organ, sums provided by the budget for the local government sector.
Until RDCs could appoint their own staff, which he said was contained in the various bits and pieces of legislation that make up the local government laws, town clerks, municipalities, overseers of NDCs and REOs could hold the local democratic organs to ransom at the behest of the central ministry.
In this regard, the ministry would disregard the provisions of Section 75 of the Constitution which speaks to the autonomy of the RDCs and instead insist on Part III, Section 35 of the Local Democratic Organs Act Chapter 28:09 which stipulates that “In the management and development of its region, every council shall be guided by the general policies of the government and the national objectives as set by the government, and shall devise its development plans and programmes to ensure consistency with such policies and objectives; and in the performance of his functions each councillor shall endeavour to cooperate with every other councillor and with other socio-economic institutions in the area.” (Miranda La Rose)
