Minister Clinton Collymore

“I terminated the meeting on my own volition because according to the agreement no meeting of the Task Force could be held without a properly constituted quorum which includes both Co-chairmen and two other members, at least one from each side” – Minister Collymore

CO-CHAIR of the Local Government Task Force Minister Clinton Collymore announced that, with effect from last Tuesday, he has “terminated” meetings of the Task Force.

In a statement issued through the Government Information Agency (GINA), Minister Collymore strongly rebuked Mr. Robert Corbin, the leader of the opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R), who had earlier stated that Collymore was instructed to terminate the consultations on local government reform.

Collymore made it clear that no one instructed him to terminate the meeting.

He said the Task Force met last Tuesday evening, but following “major and fundamental disagreement” during the meeting between members of the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) and the opposition PNC/R, he decided to terminate the meeting on his own volition.

Colymore also noted that according to the agreement, no meeting of the Task Force could be held without a properly constituted quorum which includes both Co-chairmen and two other members, at least one from each side.

The following is the full text of the statement issued by Minister Collymore yesterday:

“The Joint Task Force on Local Government Reform met Tuesday evening (April 7, 2009) at the Ministry of Local Government. On the agenda were several matters including the Fiscal Transfers Bill 2009, the Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2009 and the Local Government Commission Bill 2009.

The Task Force had already completed discussion on the Local Authority (Amendment) Bill and was engaged in tidying up that piece of legislation before moving on to the Fiscal Transfer Bill 2009 in order for members of the Task Force to make any last minute adjustments. Several adjustments were made by Mr. Allan Munroe, Co-chairman which were accepted fully and inserted into the Bill and also by Mr. Navin Chandarpal who also made certain adjustments which were equally accepted.

There upon the discussions came to an end at about 18:30 h and when we reached the point of the agenda to discuss the Local Government (Amendment) Bill which is the legislation to update and modernize the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs), the PNCR members insisted they did not wish to discuss that particular Bill before discussions on the Local Government Commission Bill.

This became a major and fundamental disagreement because the PPP/C members on the other hand insisted the Local Government (Amendment) Bill was a higher priority than the Local Government Commission Bill and we gave our reasons consistently.

The PNCR members objected to the reasons given by the PPP/C members and therefore, there was no way we could have proceeded with the meeting. At that point I announced that for all intent and purposes, discussions at the Task Force level had come to an end and that pending any further notification from me, no more meetings of the Task Force will take place.

Members of the PNCR expressed surprise and indicated they were not in favour of the termination of the meeting and I insisted that that was my decision in view of the fact that the discussion had come to an end on all the Bills we had agreed to discuss. Since there was no agreement on which of the two remaining Bills to discuss, there was no sense in proceeding with further meetings.

I further informed the Task Force members that the principals will be informed by me in writing about the cessation of meetings and would be given the reasons for my decision and the areas of disagreement.

I was therefore very surprised to hear from the media that Opposition Leader Mr. Robert Corbin said that I was instructed to terminate the meetings.

What Mr. Corbin has said is far from the truth and no way represents the facts of the matter. I terminated the meeting on my own volition because according to the agreement no meeting of the Task Force could be held without a properly constituted quorum which includes both Co-chairmen and two other members, at least one from each side. Therefore, since I was unable to continue the discussion I terminated the discussions on my own. No one instructed me to do so.”

The task force, comprising members of the PPP/C and the PNC/R was established in 2001 to deal with the affairs of the Local Government Reform process. This came out of the dialogue between President Bharrat Jagdeo and the Leader of the Opposition, the late Desmond Hoyte.

Among the terms of reference of the Task Force are: to ensure the conclusion of the constitutional reform process and give effect to the new constitutional provisions regarding local democracy; to monitor and guide the drafting, passing and implementation of legislation to give greater autonomy to local government bodies, including the establishment of the local government commission, and the formulation and implementation of objective criteria for the purpose of the allocation of resources by local democratic organs.

It is hoped that the Local Government polls will be held before November 30 of this year.