Dear Editor
In 2006 the Government of Guyana, with funds from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) initiated a project described as the Community Services Enhancement Project, designed to specifically prepare the communities of Bartica, Charity, Parika and Supenaam for their upgrading into municipalities.
This was a most creative approach, in relation to which consultancies were invited to facilitate the development of, and training for, the implementation of
i) management systems;
ii) financial administration and budgeting systems;
iii) improved tax collection and enforcement mechanisms;
iv) capacity building to manage such infrastructure as roads, drainage and sanitation systems.
The investment of such expertise to carry out this laudable project, or series of projects, had to be seen against the background of the respective capacities of the individual populations to absorb the necessary training and develop the skills to competently discharge their management and delivery responsibilities.
Reference to this undertaking (to all intents aborted) is particularly relevant at a time when a disproportionate number of elected Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) is being displaced by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Administration, which has appointed Interim Management Committees (IMCs) instead. While the duration of the ‘interim’ regime has not been specified, of more concern is the ‘management’ capabilities of those who would have replaced their counterparts from the same ‘Neighbourhood.’ What training would the former have received in order to enhance performance in management; financial administration and budgeting; tax collection and enforcement; as well as the effective maintenance of roads, bridges, drainage and sanitation systems?
Where can one locate the human resource development capacity that would ensure the efficacy of the delivery of services by these new teams, particularly in the two acknowledged defaulting municipalities of New Amsterdam and Linden?
In this milieu of malfunctioning local governance, perhaps of all its institutions – the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown – arguably the oldest of them all, evidence of which is seen in its current state of decrepitude, is now being band-aided by an Implementation Committee (as distinct from an Interim Committee) through the assignment of critical responsibilities to identified indigenous under-performers.
In hindsight, if only the opportunity were taken to implement the Community Services Enhancement Project, perhaps by now lessons would have been learnt to better guide the errant municipalities and NDCs.
Hopefully, this substantive default on the part of the ministry concerned will be raised when first the Bills to amend the Local Government Act; and to establish the Local Government Commission, respectively, are discussed by the proposed Select Committee of the National Assembly.
Yours faithfully,
E B John
