Dear Editor,
Two things caught my attention in the Stabroek News of March 27. One was the editorial on the need for a hasty return of the sitting of Parliament and the article that reveals that the establishment of the Local Government Commission (LGC) will be delayed.
I see a nexus in the two, which goes along the following lines: the Local Government Commission should be tabled in Parliament to be scrapped, and the mandate conferred on this commission given to the democratically elected councillors of the NDCs and municipalities across the country.
Many analysts continue to lament the failure of the state to issue a commencement order for the establishment of the LGC without consideration of the ramifications of doing so. Moreover, the LGC is an insult to the local government electoral process and an undermining of democratic accountability.
How can any entity, both public and private, be efficient if its leaders have little or no say in who is appointed to execute their mandate. I have never heard of a private company that would allow an external agency to hire its Chief Executive Officer and those under his/her charge. This is precisely the case with the LGC. Who then is held accountable for failure of the staff appointed by the LGC to carry out the councillors’ mandate? Since the voters have no say on who appoints the LGC officers, the accountability is left to the hapless councillors when citizens vote at local elections. Moreover, and since the LGC composition will be a creature of the sitting government, this body can be used as a tool to stymie the effectiveness of those local organs whose leadership doesn’t see eye to eye with the government.
Yours faithfully,
Clinton Urling
