Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) Chairman, Alan Munroe, says that Neighbourhood Demo-cratic Councils (NDCs) must put people first in their development thrust, while paying more attention to the disadvantaged in their communities.

He also called for greater social interaction in the NDCs as a safeguard against criminal activities.

He was making closing remarks at a two-day training programme for chairmen, councillors and overseers of NDCs held at the Diamond Community Centre, East Bank Demerara, last Friday.

During the exercise, Region Four local government officials recommended that the chairmen and councillors of NDCs be remunerated and the post of chairman be full-time because of the tasks involved.

It was noted however that provision was in place for remuneration of councillors based on the economic viability of the councils.

It was also recommended that livestock such as cattle be branded to determine their ownership and pounds should be established in NDCs and fees imposed, since stray animals have been damaging property and property-owners are not receiving any compensation.

Munroe said further that the recommendations should be taken into account by the Task Force or Bipartisan Committee on Local Government Reform, which he said was yet to meet with the councillors of the NDCs in Region Four.

In discharging his duties, he said, he has come across many conditions that are unsuitable for effective local government, and noted that the Task Force had not yet initiated discussions with the practitioners on the ground.

The NDC councillors were on the ground and they know the aches and pains of the communities they serve, he contended, and they should be involved in setting the stage for local government reforms.

Munroe pointed out that the law does not make provision for an acting regional chairman or regional vice-chairman. He suggested that this was an issue that should be considered in local government reform.

Speaking about other issues, he noted that over the past 20 years there has been no valuation exercise to allow NDCs to collect adequate rates and taxes to service the communities. But if the NDCs were to extract from each ratepayer what he or she was supposed to pay, the ratepayer will have to pay 30-40% of their earnings, he said. While the majority of ratepayers earn little, he argued, some NDCs have large corporations within their boundaries that could make an input to create the balance needed.

NDC chairmen, he noted, have a public duty to perform and to give service to all the people within their purview. “Keep politics out of service or you would not perform,” he declared, adding that when elections were over, there are local authorities to manage.

Munroe said that too many conflicts in NDCs arise because of political one-upmanship. Irrespective of how many parties are represented on a council, action must be taken without prejudice. Calling on leaders to show maturity in politics, he said Guyanese should have learnt from the hard lessons of the early sixties when the country was torn by racial strife and more recently from the events after the 1997 elections.

In his view, if councillors cannot perform, it is better that they give up office rather than to wait on the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development to use his powers to remove them.

Chairman of the Grove/Diamond NDC, Omar Khan, popularly known as `Comrade Omar’, agreed with Munroe saying “this was not the time for fighting each other but for unity and togetherness.” He said that as a Third World country struggling to develop, if the leaders and people do not work together “we will sink together.” (Miranda La Rose)