Lobbying efforts by the majority of Region Four councillors to have their administrative building reconstructed at the former Paradise location have failed and Local Government Minister Kellawan Lall insists that they cannot decide where the building would be located.
But according to Regional Chairman Clement Corlette, the minister has not yet responded to a letter he had written him which informed him of a 16:12 vote by councillors in support of the same Paradise, East Coast Demerara location.
In a brief comment to this newspaper last week Lall said the council could not decide where they want the building to be, that was the government’s decision and so the building would be constructed in the compound which also houses the Regional Education Office at Triumph.
Corlette said the region was in need of its building but was hoping that the decision would be overturned in light of the majority vote. He said while he had spoken to the minister many times after the letter was sent, he expected him to respond and so he never raised the matter and was waiting to see if monies for the construction of the new building would have been approved.
The allotted sum is $25M. Corlette had told members of the council at a meeting last month that he had not received any response to the letter to the minister and so he would wait for more time to elapse and would write him again.
Whether the building should be constructed on extra land space in the Regional Education Office’s compound at Triumph, also on the East Coast Demerara, or at the original Paradise location had divided councillors with the PNCR-1G members of the council being more vocal in having the building remain at Paradise.
Region Four is set to provide a test of what is expected to be a new political environment. The two main parties – the PPP/C and the PNCR1-G – had voted together to share the top two spots on the council, that of chairman and vice-chairman thereby shutting out the fledgling Alliance For Change.
Cabinet had taken a decision to build on the Triumph location, but most councillors were not in favour of this move and all agreed that the best course of action was to approach the subject minister with their concerns.
In that letter to the minister, Corlette had said that he referred to Chapter Section 301 (1) of the Municipal and District Councils Act, which also covers Regional Democratic Councils, and which he said stipulated that the council should make decisions pertaining to rental or any other things related to its building. “So I think he is looking at it and I am anticipating a response shortly,” Corlette had advised the council.
He noted too that in his letter to the minister, he made known his support for the majority decision and used the statutes to support his position. The local government ministry has already gone out to tender for the construction of the new building despite the disagreement among councillors who said that they were not consulted on the matter by the government.
Stabroek News raised the matter with opposition leader Robert Corbin who said that he hoped that the Government would take note of the proposal made by the Regional chairman.
However, he did not say whether his party will intervene in the matter but noted there was legislation which gave the Minister of Local Government, the powers to override any such proposal from the region.
Against this background Corbin said too that this is why his party has been a steady advocate for much needed local government reform.
“This situation emphasizes the great need for local government reform and so these laws that give the minister so much power could be reformed,” Corbin said.
“So it is possible that they could put the office where they want to put it,” he added.
However Corlette had told Stabroek News that he believed writing to the minister, even after the tenders were already advertised, was not too late and he noted too that the Paradise location was suitable not only for historical purposes but also because it is centrally located.
“I don’t see any sense in putting the building in Triumph, which is so close to central Georgetown. Most of the staff are from further up the coast and travelling the distance every day may be a bit cumbersome for them,” Corlette said in a previous interview.
Corlette had said too that he believed this decision to build the office at Triumph was long in the works but no one had informed the new council about it.
When this newspaper informed Corlette of the minister’s position and asked for his response he said that he would “discuss the matter with his principals and they would decide what would happen.”
He said too that he felt that local government was meaningless if the council was not even able to use the laws which govern it to represent itself on certain matters and this situation was testimony to that.
The regional administration’s office at Paradise was destroyed by a suspicious fire just after the August 28, 2006 general elections. The investigation has thus far not yielded a result.
