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This time around, M&CC and the NDCs should listen to the People
By Leonard Gildarie
In recent weeks, media houses have been doing their annual thing…trekking to Parliament Buildings and
Leonard Gildarie
covering the annual presentation of the national budget.
Year after year, citizens hear almost the same thing…so much money has been allocated in a particular area for repairs of roads and other infrastructure. It is the way the budget works.
This year it was no different, except that a relatively new Government is in place.
In a few weeks’ time, Guyanese will be heading to the polls again to vote; the second time in less than year – to choose the representatives to sit on the Town Councils and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils.
For those who don’t know and should care, these two bodies are critical in carrying out maintenance works in communities and designated towns across the countries.
This year, two more towns have been added to the list.
So why is important for citizens to vote and choose the right persons?
For almost two decades, the Town Councils and NDCs have been stagnant, markedly corrupt and highly inefficient. Poor rates and taxes collection, along with migration and deaths have left the councils handcuffed, resulting in poor maintenance in communities across the country.
We hear a lot of how much monies are being spent. We hear talks of how much monitoring is going into the projects to ensure Guyana and its people get value for their tax dollars.
We hear very little of what happens to state contractors who mess up on jobs and walk away with millions for poor quality, delays and sometimes non-performance.
So, here we have a critical part of our governing system about to have new officers and councilors.
We have learnt from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) that many constituencies have not submitted names of representatives from their constituencies to contest the local government elections. This is a sad state of affairs for this country and speaks damningly of the work of GECOM, and of our people and their willingness to get involved.
I have many friends from both the Government and Opposition sides. I tell them one thing…I don’t care who is in power, as long as they have the country at heart. We see many of the same persons who did little over the years in office, running again, and I wonder.
But to come back to my beef with the state of our systems.
We have poor monitoring when it comes to ensuring we have a better life for our people. We can blame it on the system…a corrupt one, an inefficient, bureaucratic one that has been allowed to fester over the years, growing now into a tumour. We have to cut it out.
Government recently announced that ministers are now mandated to report on their progress of projects and programmes as part of their assessment. Good move.
Maybe we can go further. We need to build capacity badly with our local contractors. Training, familiarization with procurement laws, along with penalties, should all be part of the package. They need to be part of an association that can sanction them for poor quality and non-performance and yes, for corruption.
Don’t leave it to the Government and its agencies and ministries.
We would hear ministers and others urging members of the public to monitor projects that are taking place in their communities and report back on problems.
Many persons have complained that their reports are going nowhere, with the supervising engineers and the contractor both in cahoots to cover-up poor work.
I know of some decent contractors who try. I also know that many times we see projects in our community being carried out without our input.
How do we arrive at what contracts to do? I can’t recall ever seeing any NDC official knocking on the gate asking what we would like in the community.
Yet we saw projects, some of them still white elephants, like the market tarmacs across the country. Diamond has one, and the toilets are falling apart, and cricket is being played there. There is no market being held there.
So yes, any new NDC and Town Council folks would have to understand that the old way of doing business can no longer work. It goes beyond which party you are representing. The people are demanding proactiveness, efficiency and transparency.
For me, I would like persons who are thinking outside of the box; willing to try new ideas, like how the NDCs can work with residents to reduce crime and even improve literacy.
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