CHAIRMAN of the Local Government Commission (LGC), Mortimer Mingo, has confirmed that salaries for staff and commissioners have been paid and money for operational expenses received, after an agreement had been struck with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and Ministry of Communities (MoC).

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle via telephone interview, Mingo, yesterday ( Monday, February 25, 2019) said he could not provide full details but verified that the 27 staff and eight commissioners of the LGC have been paid their January and February, 2019 salaries.
“We have been paid, yes for both January and February. We have come to an agreement on all funds. It was a tripartite [agreement],” Mingo confirmed.

The newest development marks an end to an over one-month long impasse between the LGC and the MoC, over the releasing of funds for the LGC to function. At a press conference held on February 15, 2019, Mingo said the commission was “effectively shut down”, but, subsequently, issued a statement saying the commission was nonetheless still operational.
The commission had its cellphone services cut earlier in February, while the fate of its other utilities and even rent remained uncertain. Staff and commissioners had not been paid salaries since December 14, 2019.

This was after MoC Permanent Secretary, Emil McGarrel, said he could not sign over monies to the LGC because the work programme, submitted by the commission, had an excess of approximately $25M over the $124M allocated for commission’s annual current expenditures.

McGarrel said his hands were tied because, if he signed over monies to the LGC, he would be in violation of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA), unless the LGC submitted a budget within the limits of the $124 allocated to it for current expenses in the 2019 budget.

The LGC is essentially supposed to be a constitutional body with financial independence. However, it is yet to be placed on a constitutional agency register. In the interim, it receives its finances via a subvention under the MoC.

In its 2019 annual budget, the LGC requested some $305M. However when the 2019 national budget was approved, the LGC was allocated only $137M, with $124M for current expenditure and $13M for capital expenditure.
In February 2019, the LGC wrote to the MoF asking if the shortfall could be addressed.