The Alliance for Change (AFC), formerly one of the most vocal advocates for the Local Government Commission (LGC), has over the last two years been strangely silent while the government of which it is a part fails to establish the constitutionally required body. AFC Leader Raphael Trotman said recently that the party expects action to be taken on establishing the commission. “The matter is being discussed at both party and cabinet levels as both coalition partners are equally concerned and expect some movement soon in having the commission in place,” he said in response to a query from Stabroek News. There was no indication as to what time period constitutes soon.
Trotman made this statement a little over a week after Chairman of the AFC Khemraj Ramjattan confirmed to Stabroek News that he had told opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira that he would be too busy in June to meet on LGC nominees.
The opposition PPP/C had invited all political parties represented in the 11th Parliament to a meeting to discuss the nominees for the long overdue LGC.
Teixeira has explained that she wrote to General Secretary of the APNU Joseph Harmon and Ramjattan asking that they be present for a meeting to be held during the first break of the June 15, sitting of the National Assembly.
This invitation followed a request from Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan that the Leader of the Opposition satisfy the regulatory requirement that he meet with all the parliamentary parties before submitting the names of two nominees for the commission.
The Leader of the Opposition had, in July 2016, identified former Georgetown town clerk Carol Sooba and former local government ministers Norman Whittaker and Clinton Collymore as his three nominees for the commission.
According to the legislation, the commission will be made up of eight members: three nominated by the President, one nominated by the minister after consultation with the 71 LGA, one nominated by unions operating in the local government sector and three nominated by the Leader of the Opposition after consultation with all parliamentary parties.
In April 2016, the Committee of Appointments named Andrew Christopher Garnett, of the Guyana Local Government Officers’ Union as the nominee from the trade unions. This nomination was approved by the House in August 2016.
However, despite consistently promising to establish the commission Bulkan told Stabroek News in May 2017 that neither he nor President David Granger was ready to name their nominees.
The minister who once stood on the protest line calling for the establishment of this commission opined that the local government system was functioning effectively in its absence.
“The pace of local government reform and relevance are not being hampered or stymied by the absence of this commission. It is proceeding apace. There are issues but the local government agenda is going forward,” Bulkan had told Stabroek News.
Before becoming minister, Bulkan had been critical of Whittaker for not moving to operationalise the commission. His party, APNU, had also called numerous times for the commission to be established. Further, one of the AFC’s key demands for its support of anti-money laundering legislation in 2014 was the signing of the commencement order for the Local Government Act to take effect.
Since winning the May 11, 2015 elections, however, the APNU+AFC government has not moved with alacrity to establish the body. The commission is provided for in Guyana’s Constitution. Article 78 (a) reads: “Parliament shall establish a Local Government Commission, the composition and rules of which empower the commission to deal with as it deems fit, all matters related to the regulation and staffing of local government organs and with dispute resolution within and between local government organs.”
Under the law it will not only oversee municipalities and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils but also Regional Democratic Councils as well as Amerindian Village Councils.
