In the Haslington/Grove Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) there is a virtual insurrection against the Chairman Godfrey Henry and questions have been raised by villagers and staff of the NDC over what has happened to monies he collected from them. A vocal section of the community wants Mr Henry to be removed from his position forthwith.

What is happening in this NDC is symptomatic of almost every other local government body across the country. These bodies have remained unchanged since 1994 because of political upheavals and the inability of the two main political parties to get their acts together to allow the convening of new local government elections due since 1998.

As a result, administrative fatigue, non-accountability and disinterest have set in and the NDCs and other organs such as the municipalities have been sapped of their will, credibility, authority and mandate. Many of those councillors who were there from the inception have migrated or dropped out and the burden of trying to keep things afloat have been placed on a precious few, many of who are honestly trying to make an effort to run the business of these villages.

The protests against Mr Henry could have been easily overlooked were it not for the fact that the NDCs are engaged in serious business; collecting rates and other levies and together with an annual subvention from the state applying these monies to improvement projects and administration in their villages. There therefore has to be scrupulous observance of the rules of accountability as they relate to taxpayers' funds and this is one issue Mr Henry is still to answer.

Over the last several months, Stabroek News has been running a series on local government which has pointed to some of the problems which erupted in Mr Henry's NDC.

There is clearly a need for renewal of office holders. Many of the villagers and councillors spoken to have pointed out that interest in upholding the work of the NDCs has reached a nadir. Many villagers hardly know where their NDC offices are or who are their officers. Many of them pay no rates to the NDC because they don't see any benefits being derived from their local government bodies. Drains are not cleared, roads are in a decrepit state, recreational facilities are non-existent, stray animals roam at will and there are violations of zoning rules and other laws that the NDCs should have an interest in. Questions have also been raised over accountability for rates and other monies collected and how these are banked and disbursed.

One of the biggest problems is that of garbage disposal. The entire coastline has become a dumping ground for the rubbish generated by NDCs as landfill sites have reached capacity and no new provisions have been made. It is amazing that in the eight years since the NDCs were elected the government has not been able to sit down with them and craft a viable plan for the disposal of refuse. This situation exemplifies the remoteness of central government from the various tiers of local government though in the context of the garbage problem it is not surprising as the capital city itself teeters on the brink of a rubbish catastrophe that has no neat solution in sight as yet. Many residents of the East Coast and other places have been forced to watch in alarm as garbage from neighbouring communities is literally decanted near their homes.

Another of the key problems - the resource base of the NDCs - has been attracting the attention of the government/PNCR committee on local government which unfortunately has moved at a pace that would make our leatherback turtles look like track stars. If local government is to flourish, the NDCs and the municipalities much have the financial means at their disposal to do the job so they don't have to be beholden to the administration of the day for money and subject to its whims and fancies. Automatic fiscal transfers to these communities should bear some relation to the size of their population, the nature of the infrastructural services they have to be in charge of and they should have full autonomy to raise funds and utilise these as they see fit.

It is also clear that the NDCs have to be depoliticised and should administratively be answerable only to a higher local government organ - the RDCs. The deadening bite of national politics should not be allowed to infect the administration of affairs at the basic unit of local government.

Increasing numbers of NDCs have fallen prey to disorder - in recent times Grove/Haslington and Black Bush - and with no clear sense as to when fresh elections will be held there may be need for a meeting of all NDC chairs and their key officers with the relevant minister and civil society bodies for decisions to be made on what is needed to improve their functioning and to lessen acrimony such as surrounds Mr Henry's NDC.

Praiseworthy action