UNC cries discrimination

TWO United National Congress (UNC) members on the Joint Select Committee (JSC) on the Miscellaneous Provisions (Local Government Reform) Bill 2019 on Tuesday expressed upset at a call for various local government corporations to be placed in three different tiers.

The suggestion had come from Raymond Seepaul, Acting Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government. “What kind of hierarchy are you creating?” stormed JSC member Dr Suruj Rambachan. “Are you saying some people are more important ? You used the term ‘geopolitical’ and does that have undertones? Is there inbuilt discrimination?”

Raymond said no. He said reference to “classification” was not meant to be formal, even as the ministry sought to prepare structures suitable to the corporations. Raymond said staffing needed at the corporations of Sangre Grande and Port of Spain would each be different. “We need data to understand the corporations’ human resource needs.”

JSC member Rudy Indarsingh claimed Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein had not given policy when piloting the bill now before the JSC.

Chairman Clarence Rambharat said the bill did not refer to tiers and urged the committee to wait on a written explanation promised earlier by Raymond.

Indarsingh retorted, “We might as well abort this meeting, if we are in the dark. You are placing me in a very uncomfortable position on this committee.”

JSC member Paul Richards asked the basis for the decision to create tiers. Raymond replied, “Data collection is still in place and there is no policy decision.” Rambharat again urged all to await Raymond’s explanation.

The JSC discussed how the income and expenditure of corporations might change under the new legislation.

Rambachan said that if corporations now struggle to buy chemicals and fix fogger machines to spray mosquitoes, how could they financially cope with new duties proposed by the bill to do school repairs.

He asked if funds would be diverted from the Ministry of Education and/or the Educational Facilities Company Ltd (EFCL) to the corporations. He lamented, as a Chaguanas past mayor, that budget talks between corporations and the Ministry of Finance have in the past been “a very, very, very difficult exercise.”

Rambachan also lamented that while the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation must financially shoulder some responsibilities towards the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, they are not entitled to collect tax from the estate.

JSC member Khadijah Ameen warned that the bill’s proposals for the Ministry of Finance to top-up any shortfall in collection by the corporations could actually serve as a disincentive to corporations to collect their due taxes.

Amid talk that fines collected locally such as for littering or car-parking offences are sent to the Consolidated Fund but not to the corporations, Rambachan urged the establishment of municipal courts to retain such fines.

Ameen promised to propose an amendment to the bill to create a statutory fund as a device to let corporations retain its unspent balances which otherwise are forfeit by a certain deadline. Later she told Newsday that a further amendment might be needed to mandate that any unspent balances retained by corporations

are ultimately spent on their original purpose and not frivolously diverted elsewhere. Rambachan asked if corporations should be able to borrow money on their own and whether the Government should guarantee such loans, as he said the latter happens for borrowing by the Tobago House of Assembly.