Latest update December 13th, 2024 1:00 AM
One year later… Local Govt. Commission still dormant
- Ministerial authority being used in its absence – Opposition
Communities Minister, Ronald Bulkan
One year after Local Government Elections (LGEs) were held in Guyana, the Local Government Commission (LGC) remains dormant, despite several calls from the Opposition and some relevant stakeholders.
Apart from expressing concern with the Government’s management of the Local Government system, the Main Parliamentary Opposition, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), is calling for the urgent operationalisation of the LGC.
The LGC is catered for in law and is equipped 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 (LGOs).
The Opposition is contending that the absence of the Commission is negatively impacting the lives of residents in the Local Authority Areas (LAAs).
This would have been pointed out by the PPP/C, despite that party itself, being unable to hold the LGEs during its 23-year-old tenure.
PPP/C Executive Member, Roger Luncheon, during a recent press conference, spoke of the need to keep the issue on the front burner because, according to him, ministerial authority is being used in the absence of the Commission to discharge the will of the Government.
Luncheon dubbed the state of affairs as “nothing short of an executive abuse of authority,”
Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, told media operatives earlier this year, that the process is being stymied due to the “non-adherence” by the Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, to the requirements stipulated in the Local Government Legislation.
“Under the legislation, the (names of) persons submitted need (to) be (done) following consultations by the Leader of the Opposition with the other parties in the National Assembly. Not being aware of the fulfilment of that requirement, I sought clarification from the opposition’s Chief Whip who had written to me with the names supplied by the leader of the Opposition.
So I made it clear in the National Assembly and by extension, the public, that in the absence of the clarification from the leader of the opposition, the process could not go forward,” Bulkan had said.
From all indications, Bulkan has still not received any clarification.
Guyana voted on March 18, 2016 at the LGEs – which was hailed as a historic election. It was the country’s first Local Government Election in 23 years. This would come after promises were made by the coalition parties to reinstate the election.
It was the intention of the Administration to reduce the influence of the central government by placing the oversight of local democratic organs under the purview of a Commission and not a government Ministry. The objective was to allow for the management of towns and communities, free from central government’s control, which in the past frequently proved “oppressive or suffocating”.
Further, it was done to ensure that Guyanese got the opportunity to decide who their local representatives should be.
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