Local Government Minister Marlene Coudray says Government will bring new legislation that will give more autonomy to regional corporations should the People’s Partnership return to government.
Rejecting the PNM’s plan to scrap the ministry altogether and have the Finance Ministry absorb some of its function, she assured her party was committed to local government, saying it tends to the direct needs of citizens.
Speaking at the opening of the Poonah Recreation Ground pavilion yesterday, she said even though the PNM proposes to develop a Ministry of Rural Development, the Ministry of Local Government was already helping rural communities through the upliftment of recreational grounds, roads, drainage and disaster relief.
She added: “My first act as Minister of Local Government was to table the document on the modernisation and decentralisation of local government bodies and the new, which is to be put on the agenda. Yes, we will give them more authority and more responsibility. “We have already started to give them more funding and I have already indicated that under this government, regional corporations has never had so much funding before but we need to make them more accountable in terms of some of our plans.
“All the corporations have municipal plans and this is what your public sector investment programme is about, to provide funding in accordance with established plans and guidelines and you find people using the money to do whatever they want without oversight.” She added: “Our system proposes that there will be more autonomy but you cannot divorce autonomy from accountability, from responsibility, therefore we are saying, yes, we will give them more.
“They need to have more authority and more autonomy and as minister I have been sitting back and allowing them to do their job. “When they have issues and problems, this is what the ministry is here for, to sort out those issues and problems. “We do not interfere in their day-to-day activities, except in those cases where we see abuse of authority. It happens in some corporation,”
Coudray said if the ministry was removed, it would create a divide between local government bodies and central government and hinder to local government representatives ability of deal with the everyday needs of the people. She said while she had not seen the PNM’s plan on paper, it suggested that it believed that the ministry was only involved in disbursing money. She said it was also about ensuring accountability of public funds.
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The pavilion at the Poonah Recreation Ground was built at a cost of $1.5 million by Baksh Construction Services. The project began in March 2013 and was finished in June 2014 and can hold 400 spectators. Coudray said it would also be used as a home work centre and plans were afoot to have a jogging track and children’s play park built on the ground.