A public forum was held on Tuesday to examine ways to finance local government bodies.
The discussion was a spin-off from a workshop on local government transfers which started on Monday.
The meeting at City Hall was organised by the Depart-ment of Government and International Affairs, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Guyana (UG) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) through sponsorship by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Dr Mark Rider of Georgia State University gave the feature address which focused on the fundamental principles involved in financing local government. Such principles include the gathering of accurate statistics.
He spoke about avoiding the creation of negative incentives by transfer grants and sudden major changes in policy.
Issues raised by participants touched on whether local governments should depend only on transfers or develop their own revenue raising strategies as well as how could the non-payment of taxes be addressed.
It was widely agreed that persons in local government were in the best positions to determine what were their needs and requirements.
Vincent Alexander Deputy Registrar at UG in a comment from the floor in his capacity as Co-Chairman of the Joint Task Force emphasised the importance of central government recognising the responsibilities of local government organs from the regional to the village.
Also present at the forum was Dr Mark Kirton, Dean of Social Sciences at UG, Andrew Hicks, lecturer in the Department of Government and International Affairs UG, Winston Cramer, Programme Officer Local Governance NDI-Guyana and several stakeholders including members of the Joint Task Force and MPs.