PM: Local government management weak, needs transformation

THE management system that currently exists within the 14 municipal corporations is weak and needs to change, the Prime Minister said on Saturday as he opened the Diego Martin Administrative Complex.

During his feature address, Dr Rowley explained some of the pains that councillors face having to deal with CEOs who at times do not support councillors with their requests for aid.

He mentioned two instances to bolster his point. The first being a contractor in the Diego Martin borough who leading up to elections he stopped collection and was still paid. The other was a man who was incarcerated yet being paid by the corporation for over a year.

“The management system in the corporation is weak! It is faulty! It can be improved by the work we have done.”

This work, he said, was local government reform that gave the council of the corporations the power to dictate to the public servants how to spend the funds. He said there is no reason why schools within the borough of Diego Martin can’t be repaired with money collected by the corporation, allowing for the Education Ministry to focus on other things. Likewise social services can be decentralised to regional corporations.

“What passes now for local government is a sham. We can do a whole lot better, but we have to change a number of things. The first thing is to accept that what we have is not the best that we can do.”

Rowley said he was speaking as the voice of change which now came to Diego Martin and will come to the rest of the country.

Rowley said the next development for the borough will be the Diego Martin Library. He said the community in the last 25 years has grown from not having a proper community centre to five. From not having no proper sporting facilities to having one of the best in the country in the Diego Martin Sporting Complex.

He said while there has been development and there will continue to be, he charged the corporation to develop an afforestation programme that will see housing developers not cut too much off the hill which contribute to flooding.

"This is the vision of local government, management of those affairs that affect you directly in your neighbourhood. So I ask you not to see this building as a symbol only but a functional response to the quest for improvement in the quality of your life and Diego Martin. It does not come better than this. Your roads are improving. Your housing is improving and now your administration is improving.”

In his address, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the administrative complex was the realisation of a dream of deceased local government minister Ken Valley. Valley, who was the first local government minister in the PNM after the legislation was passed in 1990, envisioned a home for the running of the corporation after it was changed from a county council. Prior to that, the corporation had its offices scattered throughout the borough

To commemorate his vision, the street leading into the administration complex is named after him, the Ken Valley Circular.

Imbert said the building, which is 30,000 square feet, was constructed through a partnership with First Citizens at a cost of about $45 million. He said half the building is being rented by the bank, the monies will be used to repay the loan to construct the building over a 20-year period. He stressed that the loan came without a government guarantee.

After the unveiling of the plaque by Rowley, chairman of the regional corporation Sigler Jack, took him and other ministers on a tour of the three storey building.

The bank’s West Vale Branch will open on Monday, according to information on its website.