And while we must wait to see if Minister Lall can be taken at his word we can hardly help but contemplate the magnitude of his undertaking since the removal of these diseases from the administration of local government demands conceptual changes in the administration of local government that are sufficiently fundamental to cause us to wonder whether the accomplishment of the Minister's undertakings lie within the scope of his job.

The run down state of the civil infrastructure - roads, drains, canals, markets and vending arcades - that are part of the responsibility of the various municipal authorities across the country have blighted our communities and turned them into objects of shame. And even though the various local authorities are quick to attribute these failures to an absence of funding we know only too well that the problem is attributable in large measure to incompetent bureaucrats, pockets of corruption and unending political squabbling, all of which have had the effect of holding the efficient functioning of local government administration to ransom.

Poorly thought out expenditure on municipal undertakings, failure to maintain basic works like the desilting of canals, the cleaning of drains and the efficient disposal of garbage all speak, in part, of incompetent administration. Then there are issues like the questionable allocation of local government contracts, poor supervision of civil works and effecting payments for work that is shoddily done. These deficiencies are rooted in the prevailing culture of favouritism and corrupt practices involving bribes and kickbacks. Here again the welfare of the municipality becomes subsumed beneath politics and payoffs.

The consequences of these practices are of course seen and felt by those who must endure the sub-standard services provided by the municipalities. There have also been numerous cases in which civil works contracted out by the local authorities have redounded to the inconvenience of citizens and the business community and at huge cost to the utility companies. The last time we checked, for example, some municipalities, including the Georgetown City Council and various Regional Democratic Councils and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils still owed GT&T sizeable amounts for telephone cable destruction during the course of civil works carried out under contracts awarded to private operators.

Arguments for a local government regime administered by professionals rather than the present arrangement that places decision-making in political hands have been made from time to time. Just a few months ago there was talk of collaboration between the Georgetown City Council and the private sector in executing some of the responsibilities of the municipality even though we have heard little of that development since then except for an address by Mayor Hamilton Green at a recent Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon during which he appeared to have as many problems as anyone else with the way in which the Council was being run.

If the nature of the responsibilities of local government administration does not allow for its management as though it were a business conglomerate, it would certainly do the system a power of good if some of the tenets that are applied in the administration of business - like transparent tendering, strict financial planning and accountability, project management, facilities maintenance and the certification of works assigned to contractors - were to be applied to the administration of local government. Such an approach would require the recruitment of trained personnel - managers, accountants, engineers etc. whose performance will be judged on delivery rather than the present arrangement in which politics and questionable standards of accountability prevail and in which there very often appears to be little accountability. And we would certainly see more prudent spending, more transparency in the awarding of contracts and more emphasis on ensuring that works are executed to higher standards. Equally important, we would put an end to the squabbling within the local government system that is a function of the party political control that obtains in the various regions. And perhaps we could even dare to hope that ratepayers would be more prompt in their payments once they begin to believe that they are securing the services that they desire.