GOVERNMENT’s decision to approve a $320M contract for mass property valuations will allow for the various councils to expand their revenue base.

Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan told the Guyana Chronicle recently that the contract will allow for the revenue base of local democratic organs to be greatly enhanced countrywide, given that rates on properties are the principal revenue tool for local authorities.

“It is government’s wish to have our councils liberated of such central political control, to be guided by established norms and good governance practice; to be accountable to relevant institutions and principally, their constituents,” Minister Bulkan said during his recent budget presentation in the National Assembly.

The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has over the years complained that because property valuations have not been done in the longest while, the municipality cannot receive what is rightly due to it from ratepayers.

“Though not a silver bullet for our council’s revenue woes, the transformation and modernisation of the property assessment framework remains a priority. It is a Constitutional prescription that local government areas be economically viable and have an adequate resource base for the management and development of their area as per Article 72,” the minister said.

He noted that an updated property register is therefore key to council’s empowerment to be effective in the discharge of its functions and to its financial autonomy and viability.
Most councils, by the end of 2019, should have an updated register enabling them to make equitable decisions on the rate percentages on priorities they want to utilise.

“The choice of rates will invariably determine the quantum of resources available to the council, the quality and delivery of services and level of investment in the community. However, the choice of rates will ultimately be a decision of each Council, individually, not a Central Government one,” he said.

Bulkan pointed out that this is not an exercise in taxation, as is “erroneously” labelled by the opposition. “This is an exercise in empowering local democratic organs; this is an exercise in making important resource options available to the various councils and communities, thereby insulating them from the whims and fancies of politicians and agencies fixated with control.”