Opposition Leader Brigadier David Granger has called on President Donald Ramotar to halt the People’s Progressive Party Civic administration’s plan to re-deploy overseers of several Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDC).
Granger wrote to Ramotar pointing out that A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and members of several Neighbourhood Democratic Councils are deeply concerned about the arbitrary transfer of their duly appointed overseers to areas outside of the jurisdiction of their NDC by the Minister of Local Government or his officials, without any consultation with them.
The result of the Minister’s action is that confusion has been created among Councils, the communities they represent and the political partners of APNU, particularly the People’s National Congress Reform. Overseers affected by the Minister’s arbitrary decision are likely to suffer grave inconvenience and financial loss because of their assignments to areas far from where they reside and to areas with which they are not familiar.
APNU does not believe that the law permits the Minister of Local Government to exercise such authority in the absence of specific recommendations from the relevant NDC. It would be unwise, even if the Minister had such authority, to take such a drastic step without consulting the NDCs that were elected by their constituency.
The Minister’s public pronouncement suggests that he is under the illusion that the overseers employed through the NDC with his approval are the staff of the Ministry of Local Government. Such a notion is very dangerous to the development of local democracy in Guyana. It emphasises the urgent need for the completion of Local Government reform as contained in the recommendations of the Local Government Task Force.
Granger urged Ramotar to halt the Minister’s action and to discuss the matter in order to arrive at an acceptable outcome.
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