MINISTER within the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Norman Whittaker, at a press conference, yesterday, disclosed that four of the six municipalities across the country have submitted their financial statements for up to 2011 to be audited, the exceptions being Linden and

Georgetown.
More disappointingly, these two municipalities are yet to submit their budget estimates for 2013, which were due since November 15, 2012. These lapses have occurred even after the ministry deployed some of its officers on several occasions to assist these municipalities in preparing their documents.
Minister Whittaker lamented that right now these municipalities are spending money without a budget to guide them.
He recalled that recently, the Mayor of Georgetown, Hamilton Green, has been making statements with regard to the City Hall restoration fund. Government, through the ministry, made available $20M to assist City Council with a restoration exercise, an activity which the Administration itself saw as being important.
Thus far, Council received $5M of which $4M has already being used. However, up to two weeks ago, it has not made the required financial submission, outlining how it plans to spend the remainder of the fund.
In keeping with financial regulations, the ministry has had to return the balance of that money to the Consolidated Fund.
In early 2012, the ministry recognised that high staff turnover gave rise to some of these challenges. As such, it sought and received approval for an increased staff complement at the Local Government Department.
Officers at this department are delegated to work along with the various Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) to ensure that their financial statements are brought up-to-date and that they are submitted and completed in a timely manner.
The ministry has also sought to conduct training programmes for staff in this regard.
Minister Whittaker maintained that, “financial accountability and records are a focus for us because we are not satisfied that some of the municipalities are making enough effort to treat with this as a priority. You received the taxpayers’ money; then you have a responsibility to account for those funds that you received.”