– ignores advice of Local Government Minister

FOLLOWING a visit paid by Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Mr. Norman Whittaker to the Linden Town Council on August 15, 2014, the Council is yet to accept the minister’s advice to formally set up a Debt Collection Unit.In light of recent allegations of financial mismanagement and a “lethargic” attitude to the collection of taxes, revenue and other charges by the Linden Town Council, the minister had suggested that a ‘Debt Recovery Unit’ be established in order to collect outstanding monies owed to the Council.
The Council would then employ persons to serve as debt collection officers. The minister added that not only would such a decision be within the ambit of the law, but also the Council would be able to sustain these workers by “paying them a percentage” of all monies collected.
The minister bemoaned strongly that this decision is yet to be implemented.
The Guyana Chronicle made several attempts to contact the Town Clerk of the Linden Town Council, Ms. Jonella Bowen but those efforts proved futile as the publication was informed by the Town Clerk’s Secretary, Ms. Doreen Peltier that the Town Clerk was unavailable and would not be available until next week.
The ability of the Council to perform its financial obligations has since been impaired because of the lack of resources under the belt of the local government body.
In a document from the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) website titled ‘The Local Government System in Guyana’, it is recognised that “Municipalities are required to execute a range of services such as drainage and irrigation, solid waste collection and disposal, maintenance of infrastructure, market operation and management, and child welfare. They also levy and collect rates.”
The local government authority’s ability to hold to these obligations depends in part on its collection of rates and taxes which it is legislatively authorised to do.
The Local Government Minister had said recently that with the activation of the Fiscal Management Act, “The amount of subvention received in one year depends on the financial performance of the NDC or the municipality in the previous year.”
He stated that under the new formula system, there is some $260M available in Government grants and subventions, where “$130M is given up-front with each NDC receiving $2M. The other $130M is determined by the formula which looks at population size, land mass, and what percentage of collectables [rates and taxes] were actually collected.”
The formula, according to Minister Whittaker, was designed in such a way that “an NDC that only collects 30% of what should have been collected should not hope to score higher points as one that scored 70%”. He said this formula is similarly applied to municipalities where subventions are reserved for capital works.
The Linden Town Council has recently come under the microscope for its inability to provide basic services as well as the lack of capacity to pay salaries to officers employed under the township.

(By Derwayne Wills)