Georgetown: The National Assembly on Thursday passed the Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2015, which vests financial and administrative powers in the Local Government Commission, removing them from the subject ministry.
Three other three bills – part of a suite of local government reforms the Fiscal Transfer Act, the Municipal and District Council Amendment Act, and the Local Government Commission Act have been passed and assented to.
The bill was piloted by Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan with the aim of strengthening the local government system in Guyana.
Meanwhile, Vice President and Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, in supporting the bill mentioned in his address that with the bill there would be the establishment of constabularies in the various local government bodies (Neighbourhood Democratic Councils) across the country. “This amendment seeks to diffuse lots of power away from a central level and to also give powers as regards to constabularies to the body namely the NDCs for the simple reason that they would know more or less what it is that they have to enforce,” said Minister Ramjattan. He explained that the NDC is a peculiar body which will deal with local issues hence requiring knowledge about the geography of the area it governs and the nature of circumstances which occur there require “efficiencies and capabilities” to handle the said issues.
‘So there is need then since we are de-centralising power away from the central authority for all the powers that normally the central authority would have to now go to the NDC. One such very big power is the enforcement of the laws within that NDC,” he stated. Minister Ramjattan acknowledged that the country already has a police force but said that sometimes all the issues occurring at the NDC level cannot be in relation to law enforcement being executed by the Guyana Police Force. “If we do have what is called a constabulary at the NDC level that can enforce and probably do the work of policing these NDC laws we can have at least at the larger level, the central level, policemen under the police act doing more core policing work. Having a constabulary within the NDC ensures that these other matters be dealt with a t that level…Establishing another institution of law and order at the NDC level will have the powers of enforcement,” he noted.
It was further explained that this is in no way conflicting with the Guyana Police Force. “The Police Force under the Police Act will always be superior but this constabulary is going to be an auxiliary at the level of the NDC. Indeed the big question would be who is going to pay this auxiliary but the Act , the Amendment here is making it quite clear, members and ranks of each NDC must be maintained through the resources of that NDC.”
The Security Minister highlighted that this is consistent with the fact that if you want to take away powers from the central level you must ensure that the NDCs and local levels get powers. He continued to say that such a move at the local level would ensure that persons understand all the difficulties which sometimes come along with power as well as the role of being in positions and offices in power. The National Assembly was told that it is largely the responsibility of the communities to take up these matters and deal with the matters themselves. While doing so citizens will have to understand if they want to have better policing at the level of the NDCs they will also need to find the money to ensure this.
It was further noted that the police force will play a role in at least the training of these members that form the NDC constabularies. They (members of the constabularies) can have powers of arrest after this training and members of the constabulary may bear arms in accordance of the regulation by the Minister. “This is but a great innovation to ensure that there be an institutionalising of these bodies for law enforcement at the local level,” Minister Ramjattan added.
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