Government yesterday tabled two bills that are part of a raft of reform legislation expected to lay the ground work for overdue local government elections.
The Local Government Commission Bill 2012 and the Local Government (Amendment Bill) 2012 were tabled by Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud, upon whose request they were immediately sent to a special select committee for review.
Two other critical bills, the Fiscal Transfers Bill and the Municipal and District Councils (Amendment) Bill are expected to be tabled before the impending parliamentary recess, Persaud told Stabroek News. The remaining bills are also expected to be spent for select committee review.
The government and opposition parties had previously agreed on the enactment of reforms prior to the holding of local government elections, which have been due since 1997.
Despite the tabling of the bills, work by the select committee to ready them for unanimous passage is unlikely to begin until the National Assembly emerges from its two-month-long recess.
A bi-partisan Task Force on Local Government Reform, made up of representatives of the PPP/C and the PNCR, had worked for eight years on completing the reform legislation.
However, in 2009 the government abandoned the process was abandoned in favour of the parliamentary review, which government hopes would see the holding of the polls.
All four bills were tabled in that same year and sent to select committee for a review, however, the process stalled after the opposition parties withdrew their participation, saying that the government was “inflexible” on proposed amendments.
With the opposition now in control of the National Assembly, APNU and AFC are likely to use the select committee review of the bills to strip away provisions in the legislation that give significant discretionary powers to the Local Government Minister. But even with the passage of such legislation by the National Assembly, its enactment would require President Donald Ramotar’s assent.
The Local Government Commission Bill—which had been passed in the last parliament in the absence of the opposition but not assented to by then President Bharrat Jagdeo—is intended to set up the local Government Commission to deal with all matters related to regulation and staffing of local government organs and resolve disputes within and between such organs, in keeping with Article 78 (a) of the Constitution. The Commission’s specific functions include monitoring and reviewing the performance and the implementation of policies of local government organs.
Retained from the previously tabled bill is Clause 4 (1), which deals with the method for the appointment of the six members of the commission, which the opposition had opposed
The bill states that three members are to be appointed by the President, in accordance with his own deliberate judgment; two members are to be appointed by the President after consultation with the Opposition Leader; and one other member is to be appointed by the Local Government Minister, after consultation with local democratic organs.
The opposition had sought in the past to have three members chosen by the President and the other three chosen by the Opposition Leader, but there was no consensus with the government, which was willing open to the proposal but only on condition that the President select the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the Commission.
Meanwhile, the Local Govern-ment (Amendment) Bill, according to its explanatory memorandum, is intended to include Neighbourhood Democratic Councils in the local government system for all purposes and to make consequential amendments, including increases in penalties, in a number of areas.
The bill also gives the Legal Affairs Minister the power to prescribe fees payable for any process, including the process of parate execution, by order.
