THE EDITOR: I am saddened at the response of some of the commentators on the appointment of Faris Al-Rawi as Minister of Local Government. The comments fail to recognise that local government directly impacts the quality of lives of people.
As a former public officer who spent over 25 years of my working life in local government, it is my view that the new minister will do extremely well. He will be the 14th minister of local government in the 31-year history of the Municipal Corporations Act, and the first attorney to assume the post.
He will no doubt have an excellent grasp of the 275 sections that comprise the Municipal Corporations Act 21/1990 and, together with the many local government matters that have been argued by several eminent senior counsel and determined in the courts of TT, will be not easily distracted.
Al-Rawi will be aware by now that local government consists of 14 separate legal entities (municipal corporations), each managed by a board (council) selected/elected via a political process to manage the affairs of their respective corporations and it is these councils that are responsible for the management and policies that will determine the quality of life of the people they serve.
As minister his role should be to monitor their performance and hold them accountable. During his tenure Dr Suruj Rambachan had utilised several measures to do so.
Al-Rawi should also visit the municipal development plans which were done during the tenure of Hazel Manning and adopted by all administrations since 2010, and have the chairmen and mayors report on their progress.
He should not be distracted by cries for "releases." They are just excuses for weak management and poor planning and implementation.
For example, from my analysis of local government allocation and expenditure of the Ministry of Local Government, per reports of the Auditor General for the period 2007 -2020, total allocation was $29 billion and expenditure $25 billion (rounded to nearest billion). Why was $4 billion not utilised?
In other words, hold the boards accountable for performance. Should Al-Rawi be distracted he will lose focus on the policy areas that are urgent, like the impact of climate change and progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
MOTILAL RAMSINGH
via e-mail
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