Local govt reform must go beyond legislation

I have participated in the various consultations on local government and I am of the view that meaningful reform must go beyond legislation, and include strategies to orient local government representatives to service and management principles, rather than making the attainment of rank and the winning of contests the sole objects of attention. In other words, appropriate attitudes and managerial skills must prevail over inter-party sniping.

Following the last local government election, I wrote each member of the Chaguanas Borough Corporation individual letters intended to bring pressing needs to their attention, but not a single acknowledgement was received.

I believe that after being sworn into office, many representatives are transformed from humble vote-seekers into hubris-stricken, arrogant, haughty, know-it-alls. Suffice it to say that the items that I brought to their attention have being all ignored. There were issues that were beyond the control of the Chaguanas Borough Corporation, but I expected that members would have taken steps to lobby the appropriate State divisions for action.

For example, the WASA mutilated streets such as Fitt Street remain threats to public safety; the instances of loud music intentionally played from vehicles to annoy residents at nights continue without police intervention; truck owners use the roadsides for overnight parking; large trees grow on the grass verges (eg Imamshah St and Helen St); unlawful extension of market stalls restricts human movement to pose a serious hazard in the event of panic; the festering eyesore of a vendors mall located on lands donated for a health facility in the heart of Chaguanas has become even more permanent, with ad hoc steel-framed structures becoming the norm.

No one seems to understand that the booths in this ghetto are largely bulk storage units where street vendors visit only to replenish their supplies.

The ordinary citizens no longer have the use of the pavements because these have been huffed by vendors.

Furthermore, hordes of renegade PH taxis break traffic lights and every other regulation as they ply their illicit trade.

However, there is a price to pay for being vocal.

When I went through the approved process to use the borough auditorium for a public education purpose on behalf of an NGO, my request was not only denied, but I was informed that the borough corporation was under no obligation to provide reasons for the denial.

In the face of all the difficulties endured by burgesses, the corporation is pre-occupied with vanity-driven twinning projects of dubious benefits, but which provide excuses to visit foreign lands.

While a selective few burgesses are personally invited to consultations, the rank and file are kept in the dark and only hear of decisions taken afterwards.

This state of affairs indicates not only a lack of commitment to satisfy the needs of residents, but a serious deficit of management skills, which is indicated by the incapability of these officials to get the various enforcement groups under their control to do their work. For example, placing 100 more municipal police in the borough will be an absolute waste if no one can motivate the present small team to regulate the market activities.

I trust that the Government will have some kind of oversight mechanism to bring an end to exorbitant retreats, twinning exercises, self-adulatory banners and other money-wasting expenditure that prevail in many corporations.

Otherwise making boroughs out of districts and cities out of boroughs will simply be another set of money- wasting vanity projects.