Local democracy is under attack and is being eroded by the Coalition

Nov 08, 2018 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
We are once again approaching yet another Local Government Elections which should democratically elect local representatives to run the affairs of their Local Authority Areas (LAAs). However, I have listened with disdain and disbelief as both APNU and the AFC seem to be suffering intense delusion that the PPP is to be blamed for the currently stymied development of these LAAs countrywide.
In this letter I will deal with the true meaning of local democracy and empowerment of the Local Democratic Organs.
In terms of local democracy we have witnessed numerous instances in Region 6 whereby there were efforts to fraudulently frustrate the electoral process by inserting as candidates many persons who were not backed by the people living in the respective communities. This by itself being a fraudulent act, has more so damaged and frustrated the entire meaning and purpose of local government elections and has denied the people to democratically elect representatives of their choice.
Article 71(1) of our Constitution is seriously breached since it says that, ‘Local Government is a vital aspect of democracy and shall be organized so as to involve as many people as possible in the task of managing and developing the communities in which they live’.
It is therefore imperative that the people so elected should be competent to manage and develop their communities and have the support of persons in their community, at least 18 of those in the case of NDCs.
A relevant question needs to be ventilated here. If a prospective candidate cannot even find 18 persons to back him or her, can we conclude that such a candidate is ‘fit and proper’? Imagine a prospective candidate has to do all sorts of questionable things just to have 18 names to back his/her candidacy!
Why would political parties go against the spirit and meaning of what local democracy is all about? Voters should beware of such political parties, since they have already shown their true colours, so do not expect them to deliver when they get into office.
We have seen this played out at the last General and Regional Elections in 2015 and its aftermath. Has Local Government Elections truly returned democracy to Guyana? The answer is no! The entire electoral process must be deemed to be free and fair!
This Government since the last Local Government has done nothing to empower the Local Democratic Organs of this country, but they have been creating new ones and gerrymandering old ones in order to control them.
May I remind the Coalition that empowerment can only be realized when resources are sufficiently available to carry out the functions of these NDCs and municipalities. There can be no empowerment without sufficient resources. This Government is all about empty rhetoric. A pertinent question here is: Have Local Democratic Organs in Guyana truly empowered the people? The answer is again, NO! You cannot empower your wife and give her just a few dollars to run the home!
Moreover, the finance garnered from rates and taxes and the meagre subvention are wholly inadequate. This is compounded by the fact that proposals made by the NDCs and Municipalities are badly decimated when included in the Regional Budget.
Many of the proposed projects are then ‘scissored’ leaving the few selected ones at the mercy of the Central Government. However, this Government will ensure that they carry out developmental works in their support-based areas. There is numerous evidence of this, and this has been raised at the Region 6 RDC statutory meetings more than once.
What is important to note also is the fact that the NDCs have little or no say how the ‘huge’ subventions should be spent. Section 21(a) of the Procurement Act Chapter 73:05 says that ‘The National Board may, at its discretion, create District Tender Boards for procurement by Neighborhood Democratic Councils…comprising part-time members as follows: (i) two members appointed by the relevant Regional Board; (ii) one member appointed by the relevant NDC.’
It must be submitted that this Section serves to give empowerment to the NDCs where goods are to be supplied to them or works to be contracted or tendered out on their behalf. What is even more worrying is the fact that NDCs do not know what projects will be done and by whom and at what cost. Is this ‘empowerment’? Why is it that NDCs are given subventions and cannot participate on how it is spent?
This is how the Coalition empowers NDCs – they delegated the powers to their politically appointed REOs and DREOs, effectively hoarding power at the centre while keeping local governments weak. This is the manner in which they stifle and destroy development at the Local Government level.
If this Government and the Minister of Communities are serious about empowerment then they must ensure that NDCs are empowered to spend their monies as they see fit. Moreover, since the Coalition controls the Regional Tender Board, contracts are awarded to many fly-by-night contractors who fail to deliver value for money. Another debilitating blow to ‘empowerment’.
In conclusion, if this Government is serious about empowering NDCs then they should have never wasted and squandered monies on wasteful projects such as the D’Urban Park Project and the rental of a bond to store condoms. These two wasteful projects alone could have given each NDC and municipality a small excavator to maintain its drainage system and save communities from inevitable flooding once the rains come, and they will!
Local democracy is under attack and is being eroded by the Coalition, and empowerment without resources will remain an illusory concept.
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
RDC Councilor Region 6

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