LOCAL Government and Regional Development Minister, Priya Manickchand, has assured the National Assembly that, under her tenure, all statutory requirements relating to the Local Government Commission (LGC) will be observed, including the timely laying of reports in the House.
Responding to questions from A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament, Ganesh Mahipaul, during last Friday’s sitting of the National Assembly, as to the status of LGC reports and related expenditure, Manickchand distanced herself from earlier periods of non-compliance, noting that the legislation was operational long before she assumed office.
Referring to the Local Government Commission Act, Manickchand reminded the House that the law was brought into force in 2017, while she only became minister in 2025.
She further pointed out that APNU was in office at the time, adding that questions about why the reports were not laid should be directed to the former administration.
Pressed by Mahipaul on whether her ministry had received reports from the LGC up to April 2024, and under whose authority funds allocated to the Commission in 2024 and 2025 were being spent in the absence of a functioning body, Manickchand maintained that the specific question before the House concerned the laying of reports.
The minister insisted that any additional information sought on budget allocations and authority for spending in the years cited by Mahipaul would have to be properly submitted as separate questions.
“The information he [Mahipaul] seeks to ask now is new information that needs to be put on a lot of questions,” she said, indicating that such queries were outside the scope of the original question.
Amid heckling from the APNU side of the House, Manickchand gave an explicit commitment that once the Commission is properly constituted and functioning, her ministry will adhere strictly to the law in respect of reporting obligations.
“What I can assure you, sir, is that any law that mandates the local government ministry to do or not do something will be complied [with] under my leadership, and we will see reports laid in the House when as direct by law [and] when the Commission comes into being,” she pledged.
