THE DESIRABILITY of grass roots participation in government is almost an ideological given and an article of faith of the present PNP administration. As Americans might say, to argue against local government is like arguing against motherhood and apple pie!
In Jamaica, the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation, (KSAC), and the Parish Councils are the institutions through which the energy of governance is supposed to flow from Parliament to Parish and back to central government, but the system is so clogged with the detritus of waste and mismanagement that not even common sense can flow through it much less proper governance.
Among the main responsibilities of the KSAC and the Parish Councils are the maintenance of roads and street lighting, poor relief, garbage collection, and the administration of markets and abattoirs. If results in these areas are anything to go by, local government is failing miserably.
The sorry state of the markets is a case in point. Despite the potential for collecting user fees and, in return, providing a safe environment for the orderly commerce of city, town and village, market administration is a national disgrace. Compounding the indiscipline of the society in general and of street vendors in particular (some of whom are now invading schools), the KSAC and Parish Councils have surrendered their authority to 'dons' and thugs and allowed the system to collapse into chaos and anarchy. The health authorities are obliged constantly to threaten to close down markets and abattoirs because of the deplorable state of sanitary and other conveniences and this, in turn, provides an excuse for vendors to occupy the streets rather than the markets, thus reducing the fees available for improvements and upgrading. Extortionists are allowed to highjack additional fees, and inefficiency and corruption are rampant despite pious talk about local government reform which seems to be getting nowhere.
The time has come for Minister of Local Government Portia Simpson Miller to bring her vaunted powers of organisation to bear on the existing crisis situation. With her leadership, Government needs to put remedial options before the public as a major issue of debate in the upcoming local government elections expected by the end of March.
Decentralised administration in this country at the level of the KSAC and Parish Councils results in duplicated costs of salaries, pensions and motor car allowances, among others. Unless grass roots voters see practical results from programmes administered at the local level, results that improve the quality of their lives, they may lose patience with the system itself and, despite its sacred cow status, put it out to pasture. One way or the other, the present state of affairs cannot continue.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
