Urgent local gov’t reform needed
THE FUNCTION of local government goes beyond cleaning gullies and garbage collection. Local government represents the ‘feet’ of the nation.
This means that the mayors, councillors, and civic groups, as well as the Church come together to bring transformation to their communities. A great deal of focus is often on the central government – the prime minister and ministers. However, the central government’s focus includes the vision and the driving of the nation’s policies, which must start from local government itself.
For example, dealing with crime on the national level, we tend to focus on the Ministry of National Security and the commissioner of police or the party in power to come up with a plan, while we neglect local government representatives, regardless of their party, to manage their parish. So the management of a nation’s security and economy begins with/in the local government.
They are the gatekeepers within the city regarding conduct, and that is where fair distribution of resources must take place. If there is to be equality and fair distribution of resources within the nation, it starts with local government. Hence there needs to be committees set up that are drawn from nongovernmental organisations, churches, civic groups, political, private, and business sectors to determine how we allocate and distribute resources within the communities. Often, the local government operations are neglected and only given attention during the election season.
The nation tends to focus on international investors, while we neglect the building of communities, sports, economic development, and all these first take place in the communities.
Lobbying and legislation of new laws all starts within local government, but often, the general public – even at the community level – has no idea how that works nor do they have any input.
When the nation’s Budget is being read, many don’t fully grasp what is being put forward nor do they understand the implications of the various Budget decisions.