Latest update October 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 14, 2017 Letters
Dear Editor,
Local government authorities have to be more sensitive of the culture and the financial benefits which can be derived from organised and standardised vending. Vendors can provide three times the amount of money the central government can afford to give to councils in subvention every year, if the council uses its power to provide vendors with space on reserved and other areas which would not create a hindrance to others, but provide services to them, such place where there is heavy presence of patrons.
While the local government councils have the power to remove vendors from its reserves, they also have the power to leave any vendor who abides by the rules and standards set out by the Council because the law never stipulated removal under all circumstances. Vendors have the right to work to make a living for themselves and families; they provide services to the people who may not have the time to go to the big stores, or who may rather purchase from vendors by giving them support so that they can have a job for themselves.
Most vendors are single parents, some of them may not had the opportunity of higher education, but are ambitious to make a living in a just way, working harder than thousands of persons who may be in the office.
They are up early in the morning to take their items to display and spend the day in the hot sun; we must try to find a way to help them without any scorn or the thinking that they are the lower class.
Other than providing a service to the people, vendors are also the marketing agents for farmers’ produce, local craft, sweet meats and hundreds of other local items and foods. We must be sensitive of why vendors sell and why persons buy from vendors. We should make vending a study before we act in a negative way against them, directly or indirectly. Vendors are small businesses; they create more jobs than any other sector.
If you embark on a marketing study of the big stores, the facts will show you that they don’t purchase local items in large quantities. We must come to the realisation that when a person produces a local item or plant any fruits trees or vegetables and he or she has to sell the items and the big stores don’t have the capacity to take them off so, he or she is forced to sell those products by vending or walk and sell, especially if they are perishables.
If you shut down vending or hassle persons who walk and sell, you will be shutting down the marketing agencies for local producers. While I have no problem with councils removing vendors who break the rules, it should be done after good investigation and consultation, because many times vendors who are disciplined suffer for the indiscipline ones. If you remove all vendors from local government area, the reality is the stores wouldn’t be able to handle the thousands of person that shop from vendors, and you will only be allowing the rich to make money, while preventing the poor from creating a job for themselves to earn.
Vendors can be regulated and standards achieved if the power that be, educate their staff who have the responsibility to keep them in order, not to take bribe, also to ensure that the fees that they collect, go to the council. By not making vending legal, it gives the local government staff the opportunity to collect bribe in cash or items; the only way this can be stopped, is to make them legal,
Vendors in a local government authority area who vend on council reserves can be charged a fee of 20 to 40 dollars a square foot a day, depending on what they are selling. For every 100 vendors, a council can earn over 9 million a year, which will be far more than the subvention they receive from central government at present. Vending space of 15 square feet will only cost $300 a day, at $20 a square foot. For local items which are perishable, the councils can charge $20, a square foot and $20 to $40 dollars a square foot, for selling non perishable items or imported goods; some vendors are willing to pay a $1000 a day to sell.
Vendors’ main problem is sanitation; this is because most councils do not provide for the removal of garbage. Although some vendors may be paying $1,500 a week cleaning fee to the council, the vendors still have to clean and dispose of the garbage. Cleaning of vendors areas are the duty of the vendors and the council. The duty of vendors is to clean these areas and put the garbage in bags. The council’s duty is to pick up that garbage and dispose of it for a fee, but the majority of councils don’t provide such services in a timely manner. If they did, we would not be having the problem we have now. You can hardly find bins in any local government area to dispose of garbage; you can’t expect the vendors to go till to the dump site to dispose of garbage; that is council’s duty.
By-laws can be put in place, so if vendors don’t upkeep the standard set for the stall or exceeding the space allotted to them, they can be fined $3,000 to $5,000, and if commit three consecutive breaches of the by-laws, within three months be removed. The councils are the local government authorities, who hold the power by constitution order to govern the local government area in accordance with law, no other authority can usurp or exercise the power of local government authority without a council approval or a court order to determine that the council is in violation of its duty or law.
Guyana constitution has decentralised the power of the state by dividing Guyana into 10 elected Administrative Regions, each is called Regional Democratic Council. In each region, you have lower tier elected authorities, called village councils, NDCs and municipal councils. These authorities have never been able to function properly because of financial dependency on Central Government, and the failure of Central Government to put regulations in place for them to earn. Local government can create thousands of jobs if the systems to earn can be put in place. The duty of a council is also to help in the creation of jobs in local government area, I therefore call on local authorities to standardise and regulate vending. It is important.
Michael Carrington MP (AFC) – APNU+AFC
October 1st turn off your lights to bring about a change!
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