Reforms are needed

Jun 16, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Now that local government elections (LGEs) are over, it is time to examine the need for local government reforms. Changes are needed to make the system more representative and effective.

The system for the election of municipalities is far from representative. Take for example Georgetown. North Georgetown is becoming predominantly a business area. The majority of the businesses pay the bulk and a disproportionate share of the taxes used to administer the city. Yet, most of these business property owners have no say in the decision-making of City Hall because they do not live in the City and are not represented on the Council.

Strictly relying on residential criteria for voting makes the municipality unrepresentative. Business owners who own properties in the City but are not resident in the City should be allowed to vote in LGEs or should have some form of non-voting presence on the Council.

There are advantages to having a business presence on the council. If you look at the history of the Georgetown Municipality, its best days were when members of the business class were represented on the Council. These persons have the skills and the resources needed to better manage the Council. They can bring the skills which the Council presently does not have.

The second change which is needed to make the Council more representative is to go back to the original system of wards. At present, the constituencies are much too large to allow for citizens to identify with a particular representative. By reverting to a system of wards, and by adjusting constituencies to correspond to these wards, will allow for a stronger link between citizens and their councillors.

Instead of only having 15 constituencies, each ward can become a constituency which would make these constituencies smaller and thus more representative. Obviously, this will greatly increase the number of constituencies, far beyond the capacity of the already-crowded horseshoe table. But it will make the system more representative.

In summary, therefore it is necessary to make accommodation for business owners to be represented on the council and for the dis-aggregation of the present constituencies. These changes would enhance the representative character of the system. But these changes are not going to happen unless there is agitation. The business community should band themselves together and demand representation, even as non-voting members on the Council.

The second set of reforms that are needed is to make the municipality more effective. The municipalities need a stronger revenue base but they also need a fairer system. The present system of rates places a disproportionate burden on businesses. If you look at the rates and taxes that are levied on businesses, it is far too high when compared with what is levied on residential premises. Penalties are also onerous and are responsible for much of the uncollected taxes since when huge penalties are applied for late or non-payment of rates and taxes, it increases the amount due beyond the ability of property owners to pay.

A fair system is needed one in which rates and taxes should be based on the size and location of properties. Thus, there should be a specific rate based on square feet rather than value. This would be a simpler system of collecting rates and taxes and avoid having to conduct valuation exercises. On top of this, there should be service charges relating to the collection of garbage, the weeding of parapets and drainage and irrigation charges.

In relation to markets, vending and the abattoir, hard decisions will have to be made to ensure a fairer and improved system for all. You cannot ask businesses and legitimate market vendors to pay taxes and rentals and they are facing unfair competition from illegal vending.

Reforms cannot be left to the councillors. Such decisions have to be legislated and this will involve political compromise, something that has not been forthcoming in Guyana.

The just-concluded LGE will change nothing unless both the PPP/C and the PNCR agree to reforms. But since these two parties survive on the basis of opposition and animosity towards each one, there is no incentive for compromise.

As such, there is need for a non-partisan broker to ensure a system of reforms that would bring improvements to our municipalities by making rates and taxes fairer, by attracting the sort of skills that are needed to better manage the system and by making the system more representative.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• Council, Georgetown, Local Government Elections (LGEs), North Georgetown, Peeping Tom

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