Against the backdrop of what is widely believed to be key weaknesses in local government administration in some countries in the region, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has launched a series of training workshops aimed at upgrading the skills of functionaries responsible for accounting and reporting in local government administration.
Guyana, where the management of local government institutions has come under sustained criticism following expressions of public concern over weaknesses ranging from institutional efficiency to malpractices relating to the expenditure of funds is one of the six named countries that have been targeted to benefit from the training. The remaining five are The Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.
The exercise will embrace fifty municipalities across those countries and will cover topics related to financial administration.
The CDB says that the workshops form part of a wider capacity-building initiative that seeks to bring a higher level of effectiveness to the expenditure of the targeted municipalities. Training will also seek to enhance administrative sensitivity in the context of targeting the particular needs of marginalised groups and taking account of environmental considerations.
An official associated with supporting the execution of the project is quoted as saying that the project “will contribute towards improved, inclusive governance practices and enhanced accountability mechanisms such as planning, public transparency of budgets, customer service contracts for public utilities, adequate public asset management and clear monitoring of the performance of local governments.”
The regional project is being executed with the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF), a global local government organisation, bringing together local authorities, their national associations and the Ministries responsible for local government in Commonwealth member countries and will be executed through e-learning modules and virtual workshops that will cover financial and development topics including budgeting for local government, gender equality and social inclusion, and action planning.
The initiative includes a follow-up exercise which will be executed about a year after the training workshops.
