Ministry of Local Govern-ment Permanent Secretary, Collin Croal and two other representatives recently completed a one-week finance training programme at the University of Birmingham that will foster new initiatives in the sector.
A Government Informa-tion Agency (GINA) report said the programme was conducted by the International Development Department within the University of Birmingham and sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Croal, Municipal Services Officer Fabian Jerrick and Senior Regional Develop-ment Officer Puran Persaud numbered among the 26 participants from 10 countries including Sierra Leone, Syria and from the Caribbean. Croal said participants were introduced to the United Kingdom’s local government system and its relevance to Commonwealth countries.
“The programme was focused on financial aspects mainly in the area of decentralisation,” he said. Fiscal transfers, revenue sources for local government and public/private partnerships were among the other topics covered.
Regarding fiscal transfers, he explained that this is not new to Guyana as the Fiscal Transfer Bill is before the Special Select Committee. It was noted that in many countries there are several methods of transferring money.
“In the new proposal for the fiscal transfer bill we’ll be dealing with population, geographic size and the economic benefits within that area for which a formula will be applied so instead of having a fixed amount there will be a varying amount depending on what you come up with when you apply the formula,” he pointed out.
Croal also explained that in relation to revenue sources for local government, this examines issues of property taxation. “This happens to be a burning issue at our level, due to the fact that there are a number of properties that needs to be revalued, there are also issues of residential properties that are being turned into commercial, this [is] one way how revenue is being lost,” he noted.
According to Croal the programme introduced new ideas that will foster new initiatives.
