By Derwayne Wills

THE People’s Progressive Party is still to name its nominees for the Local Government Commission- more than a month after it was written to by Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, on the issue. Local Government Elections were held in March, but the Local Government Commission is still to be convened. The commission is expected to deal with appointments and discipline of non-elected local government authorities, thus taking that responsibility from the Minister of Communities.
At a press conference at their party’s Robb Street headquarters, PPP Chief Whip Gail Teixeira sought to lay blame at the foot of the Government, ignoring the fact that that her party had failed to respond to Minister Bulkan on the issue. The commission will include eight commissioners. Four will be appointed by the President; three will be nominated by the Opposition Leader for appointment by the President; and one from the Parliamentary Committee of Appointments.
Teixeira said the Parliament Committee’s one nomination was done some six weeks ago in consultation with the trade unions in the local government system.
“There have been more than three sittings [of the National Assembly] since we made the decision, and there seems to be no haste on the Government side to get the motion into Parliament,” Teixeira told reporters on Thursday.
Teixeira even went as far as saying that Bulkan is yet to write to the Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo to request his three suggestions for appointment as commissioners by the President. She added that there were attempts made to encourage Minister Bulkan to approach the Opposition Leader in writing in order to acquire the constitutionally mandated three nominations from the Office of the Opposition Leader, but “he (Minister Bulkan) never answered.”
However, the Ministry of the Presidency in response to the allegation challenged Teixeira’s position, producing a titled “Operationalisation of the Local Government Commission” which was delivered to the Opposition Leader’s Church Street office on May 12 of this year.
The ministry’s release noted that the letter had been signed for by someone at the Opposition Leader’s office on the day of delivery, and that “an acknowledgement of the letter was only received from that office yesterday, June 9, 2016.”
Teixeira, earlier on Thursday vehemently denied her party’s leader was in receipt of any such letter from the relevant minister. “He has not done it. There is no letter to the Leader of the Opposition!” she said emphatically, referring to Minister of Communities, Minister Bulkan.
“He can’t blame the PPP for not setting up the commission,” Teixeira noted, adding that the Minister of Communities is still yet to name his nominee, and is similarly expected to advise the President on the need for the President to provide three names to the commission.
Teixeira went on to accuse the Government of deliberately holding back the setting up of the Local Government Commission in order to “fill the vacancy to replace our overseers and town clerks, as they did at the regional level with the REOs (Regional Executive Officers), prior to the Local Government Commission coming into being.”
In its release, the Ministry of the Presidency reiterated the need for the Opposition Leader to name his nominees to the Local Government Commission. “This body is critical to management of matters related to the regulation and staffing of local government organs and with dispute resolution within and between local government organs.”