APNU not stalling Local Govt. bills

Dec 31, 2012 News

–  David Granger
Opposition Leader David Granger has refuted Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud’s claim that his party is responsible for local government bills being stuck at the select committee.
Granger said that he has denied the statement in its entirety.
According to Granger, on the last sitting of the National Assembly on December 20th 2012, at a meeting of the members of the Special Select Committee on the local government Reform Bills, under the chairmanship of Raphael Trotman, Mr. Basil Williams was elected chairman of the said committee ahead of the minister.
Granger said that with the Yuletide season (Christmas) being at hand, Parliament was adjourned to the 3rd of January, 2013.  He said that as a result, members have returned to different parts of Guyana and abroad.
The APNU has maintained that with an interview with the Stabroek News, Mr. Basil Williams told the reporter that on the resumption of the National Assembly, he would call the first meeting of the Committee.
Granger said that was fallacious to assert that the local government reform bills were stuck in the Select Committee when the Assembly has been adjourned to a date after the Christmas season. He said that his party has always dilated on the fact that the PPPC government is responsible for the non-implementation of local government reform in Guyana. According to Granger, for over a decade the PPPC government has had custody of the process of introducing local government reform, but failed to do so.
He said that likewise, the PPPC had custody of the said local government bills in the ninth Parliament and only passed into law one of the five bills. Granger further noted that he hoped that the negative utterances of the Minister were not the precursor of a plan of non-cooperation by the PPP in the Select Committee under the new chairmanship.