Dear Editor,
I refer to Mr Clarence Ellis’s letter captioned “The creeping dictatorship can be reversed by local government reform” (07.01.25) wherein he speaks of (i) the need for greater local government powers and (ii) where he urges the City Council of Georgetown to press the Central Government for more money, indeed enormous sums of money.
With regard to (i), Mr Ellis is right in feeling that there should be less Central Government control over the regions but his solution is merely going back to the old pre-independence local government system which always had ultimate Central Government control.
What is needed is to have real autonomy in the regions and this could never be achieved once there is constitutionally Central Government control. What is necessary is to have a more pluralist Constitution and do away with the unitary centralized state. Many have been advocating the model of the Swiss Constitution and I would recommend that Mr Ellis study that Constitution since it seems that such a Constitution in Guyana would meet all his concerns.
The problem about the City Hall is that it is very poorly managed and funds are not properly expended or accounted for. The workforce is lazy, recalcitrant and irresponsible and this kind of description occurs in public statements by city officials and is covered in the media. The present exchange between the Public Relations Officer and the Mayor and others illustrates this malaise and the failure of the City Council.
The City Council legislation is antiquated and non-functional and needs to be radically revised or scrapped. Many groups are advocating that the City be run by a City Manager, a system which has successfully worked in North America.
Everyone including the City’s taxpayers are perfectly aware that money in the hands of City Hall would not be properly expended and thus they are reluctant to pay taxes. If the Council was able to collect 70% of the taxes owed, it would have no problem with money.
In other words, vast amounts of money in the hands of City Hall would not solve the systemic situation of poor management; vast sums would merely emphasise and exacerbate the poor performance of that institution. Mr Ellis’s advocacy of putting vast sums of the taxpayers’ money in the hands of City Hall is not only unrealistic but irresponsible.
Yours faithfully,
P.I. Peters
