ARE YOU ... BEING SERVED?
Poll finds almost 40% of Jamaicans believe standard of work has fallen at local government level
ROUGHLY TWO out of every five Jamaicans believe that the service offered at the local government level has worsened over the last seven years, with the Trelawny Municipal Corporation singled out as the worst-performing council.
The findings are the latest in a national survey conducted by Market Research Services Limited, spearheaded by veteran pollster Don Anderson.
The poll, commissioned by the RJRGLEANER Communications Group, was conducted between February 2 and February 7 across all parishes and among 1,010 Jamaicans who are registered to vote.
With a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent at the 95 per cent confidence level, 39 per cent of participants quizzed indicated that the service quality from municipal corporations worsened over the last seven years while 35 per cent said it had improved.
Twenty-six per cent of participants said they were unsure.
Seventy per cent of those surveyed in Trelawny said the service had worsened, 55 per cent indicated t he same for Portland, 49 per cent in Westmoreland, and 43 per cent in St Mary.
On the other hand, 46 per cent of those surveyed i n Hanover and St Catherine, respectively, said the service had improved, 44 per cent in St James, 41 per cent in Clarendon and 39 per cent in St Elizabeth. “I’m surprised that the 35 per cent is not lower because it is very clear to me that people do not know the role and function of local government,” Carol Archer, professor of urban planning and public policy, said of the findings.
Archer said this was because central government, and more so the executive, has its grip on everything, describing the Holness administration as “extremely centralised”.
She said this is evident with the management of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, for example, which falls under the umbrella of local government but is being directed by Cabinet. “Because central government has such a hold on local government, the average citizens do not know where the member of parliament (MP) starts and stops and where the councillor starts and stops,” Archer said. Buttressing her point, Archer zeroed in on funds earmarked to fight the dengue virus, which she said ought to have gone directly to municipal corporations but went through the Ministry of Health and Wellness and MPs.
This, she said, meant that councillors relied heavily on MPs for the funding to carry out what is a local government function, which includes drain cleaning and garbage collection.
Former Minister of Local Government Pearnel Charles Sr said the results are indicative of many Jamaicans not understanding the functions of local authorities.
Charles, who served as portfolio minister for two years from 1980 to 1982, said the resources
municipal corporations get to cover infrastructure are inadequate.
“You wonder whether or not there is any need for local government because they have to turn to the member of parliament … . The fact is this: local government has never been given the amount of funds that they need to [cover] local issues,” Charles told The Gleaner.
He said that often, it is the MP who does the work required in divisions, many of them pulling along councillors.
Charles said it was time for the country to “reconsider and upgrade” local government if it is to remain part of the governance structure.
“More people are on board now. More houses are being built and more services are required,” he said.
His opposition counterpart, Noel Arscott, who served as local government minister between 2012 and 2016, said over the last seven years, the current administration has done little towards local government reform.
“We had the three strategic laws which, for example, gave a clear outline of what are the roles and functions of local authorities, the councillors, and the mayors. They have hardly moved along the line,” said Arscott.
He told The Gleaner that these laws – the Local Governance Act, the Local Government Unified Service and Employment Act, and the Local Government Financing and Financial Management Act – were crafted to engage the society.
Arscott said that under these pieces of legislation, the parish development committee and all community-based organisations were to be engaged and that these people-driven organisations were to meet with the municipal corporations.
However, he said that these reforms were not pursued.
Added to that, he said some councils were starved of funds, resulting in councillors staying away from the electorate “because them can’t take the cussing”.
He said that although local government has its own funds in some instances, central government must give support.
The former minister also noted that within the three strategic laws, a business-improvement district exists that gives legal authority to a group of businesses in a particular locale to upgrade their vicinity and create a better environment for their businesses.
“These things have never been done. I don’t know if the minister even read the document based on how he has been talking,”said Arscott.
“… Until we go back to the point where the local authorities, the councillors, the mayors, and the team engage the citizens at the community level, at the street corner level, we are going to have these kinds of outcomes of people not knowing the councillors. They don’t know what they are good for,” he added.