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APNU/AFC Government and Minister Bulkan putting “the cart in front of the horse”
Dear Editor,
The renewal of local democracy was recently concluded on 12 November 2018. There were a number of new additional LAA’s for the local government elections, Caracas/Wyburgs being one of the several new LAA.
Unfortunately, after the conclusion of the LGE elections this new LAA remain in the dark on the way forward. The internal elections was held at the Lochaber Primary School impeding on students time because there was no other building to accommodate the councilors.
Likewise staff was sent from elsewhere to conduct this internal election.
Guyanese are aware that good governance, accountability and transparency are vital for the development of all communities but the Minister of Communities Mr Bulkan imposed a system where there is no preparation to access and implement that system. This is a definite case of “putting the cart in front of the horse”.
The New Amsterdam Town Council is being governed by the PNC/R for numerous years. The last two elections were no different. Majority seats was garnered by the APNU, the PPP/C and AFC only managed three and one respectively. The NA M&TC also concluded their internal elections where the Mayor and Deputy Mayor were elected.
The Municipalities operate under the Municipal and District Councils Act Chapter 28:01. In section 60 it states that Municipalities must maintain standing committees. The most important standing committee is the Finance committee notwithstanding the facts that it ensures proper accountability and transparency which are crucial for the functioning of all Municipality.
In chapter 28:01section 62, it also states, “A council may appoint councillors to be the chairman and the vice chairman of a standing committee and continues in section 63, “A committee of a council may include persons who are not councillors but who became of their special skill or experience will, in the opinion of the council, be able to assist in the consideration of the work of the committee.
The law also cautioned that “no person other than a councillor shall be a member of either the Finance committees mentioned in schedule 5 or of a committee prescribed by a constitution order.”
Based on the constitution the New Amsterdam Municipality was allowed to elect the chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Finance committee but conveniently used the majority of APNU councillors of the council to exclude councillors from the opposition parties— that is the PPP/C and the AFC.
The exclusion of the opposition councillors is a deliberately act to exclude transparency and accountability since this particular council is managed by APNU. It must be noted that even the APNU managed city council of Georgetown included two PPP/C councillors on their Finance committee.
Why did the New Amsterdam Mayor and Town Council exclude the PPP/C and AFC councillors on their Finance committee?
It is evident that the New Amsterdam Town Council will continue to function without scrutiny, lack of accountability and transparency.
We must demand that protection for taxpayers’ monies is paramount. The exclusion of councillors from the opposition on the finance committee is to avoid scrutiny and allow continued misuse of public funds.
Zamal Hussain
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