Collymore forced to 'Terminate' 'Deadlocked' Local Gov't Task Force!

Collymore: The Joint Task Force on Local Government Reform met Tuesday evening (April 7, 2009) at the Ministry of Local Government. On the agenda were several matters including the Fiscal Transfers Bill 2009, the Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2009 and the Local Government Commission Bill 2009.

The Task Force had already completed discussion on the Local Authority (Amendment) Bill and was engaged in tidying up that piece of legislation before moving on to the Fiscal Transfer Bill 2009 in order for members of the Task Force to make any last minute adjustments. Several adjustments were made by Mr. Allan Munroe, Co-chairman which were accepted fully and inserted into the Bill and also by Mr. Navin Chandarpal who also made certain adjustments which were equally accepted.

There upon the discussions came to an end at about 18:30 h and when we reached the point of the agenda to discuss the Local Government (Amendment) Bill which is the legislation to update and modernize the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs), the PNCR members insisted they did not wish to discuss that particular Bill before discussions on the Local Government Commission Bill.

This became a major and fundamental disagreement because the PPP/C members on the other hand insisted the Local Government (Amendment) Bill was a higher priority than the Local Government Commission Bill and we gave our reasons consistently.

The PNCR members objected to the reasons given by the PPP/C members and therefore, there was no way we could have proceeded with the meeting. At that point I announced that for all intent and purposes, discussions at the Task Force level had come to an end and that pending any further notification from me, no more meetings of the Task Force will take place.