…plans to create new mandate for association

NEWLY Elected President of the Guyana Association of Municipalities, Linden Mayor, Waneka Arindell, has promised to better organise the association and create a new mandate as to how the body functions.

Arindell was elected during the association’s Annual General Meeting at Herdmanston’s Lodge on Tuesday. “The association is still in its embryotic stage and there is a lot of work to do in terms of organising the head of the association and how we are functioning,” said the mayor in an invited comment.

She said their intent is to work with the Ministry of Communities to do the best this year by ensuring that all municipalities get support from GAM. “We need to pull the strength together and work towards ensuring Local Government keeps order in place…we want to make sure that every arm is able to receive resources and maximise them,” said Arindell.

The association has representation from all 10 towns but, most of the attention will be placed on the new towns which are Mahdia, Lethem, Bartica and Mabaruma.

Some of the new members of the executive committee include Alfred Mentore, who will serve as Secretary; Kirk Fraser, who will be Vice-President; Winifred Heywood, who will serve as Treasurer and David Adams who will serve as Assistant Secretary Treasurer.

Arindell said the new members will continue to work towards helping and overseeing municipalities. Chief Planning Officer of the Ministry of Communities, Roger Rogers, said the ministry will continue to support the association in every way possible.

The ministry in collaboration with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will be rolling out a new project which will be geared at developing a strategic plan for GAM.

Rogers said the ministry has received a grant from the CDB to conduct the project but more details will be provided at a later date. “We are at a stage where we got the go ahead from the CDB to engage the organisation…we want to start creating financial regulations for GAM and ensuring that there is legislative harmonisation, because there are legislative overlaps which create impediments for the system,” said the planning officer.

He believes that the investment in local government is important because it plays a critical role in ensuring that the country goes forward.

Outgoing Vice-President of GAM, Gifford Marshall, also stressed the importance of local government, noting that the system had suffered a major blow for more than two decades, so there is need for support to strengthen local organs. He believes that through the support of the ministry, the new committee will be able to build on the foundation which was laid by the previous administration of the organisation.