Local Authorities Bill goes to Parliament

Apr 25, 2009 News

The Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Bill 2009 has been sent to the National Assembly. The Fiscal Transfer Bill 2009 is to follow shortly.
This is according to General Secretary of the People’s Progress Party, Donald Ramotar, who yesterday told the media that the Task Force, for several months, could not agree to which Bill would get the priority and thus was deadlocked. Both the Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2009 and the Local Government Commission Bill 2009 have been referred to the President and the Opposition Leader, he said.
Ramotar said that the party believes that Local Government is very important in consolidating, widening and deepening democracy and are also convinced that Local Government Elections are essential to renewing democracy at the grass roots.

“We understand that one of the reasons that the Task Force was taking so long to accomplish this work was the fact that very often when certain decisions were made at one meeting they were recommitted at another.”
Despite these shortcomings, Ramotar said, the Party believes that the Task Force accomplished a lot.
He added that the party regrets that the Task Force to look at Local Government reforms was unable to conclude its work, but that process had to be aborted and referred back to the President and Opposition leader.

This body was established by President Bharrat Jagdeo and the then leader of the opposition Desmond Hoyte some eight years ago.
Yesterday, Ramotar said that the establishment of the village councils and community councils should be deferred, until after elections have been held for town councils and neighbourhood democratic councils.
This is a reference to the upcoming elections.

Elections for village councils and community councils, he said, should take place during the next immediately succeeding elections for local government organs.
During the Task Force deliberations, Ramotar said, the PNC members stated that legislation to this effect should be included in the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Bill 2009. However, the PPP side argued that the insertion of new sections at this stage would considerably delay the submission of the Bill to the Principals.
Those discussions could take place during the second phase of the local government reform process, he added.

Another Bill outside the scope of the Task Force but which is necessary to bring change to the municipalities, he added, is the Municipal and District Councils (Amendment) Bill 2009.
This Bill was passed in 2006, but is being re-submitted to the National Assembly.
The local government (Amendment) Bill 2009 and the Municipal and District Councils (Amendment) Bill 2009 are needed to give effect to the constitutional mandate to upgrade those organs and devolve greater autonomy to them. However, Ramotar said that the PNCR did not share this view. Even though the Task Force did not conclude the process, consultations have not ended, he added.

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Local Authorities Bill goes to Parliament

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