THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE ADMISSION by the St James Parish Council Secretary/ Manager, Christopher Powell that there is yet to be a formally documented and distributed debt of over J$2 million owed by his council to the National Solid Waste Management Agency (NSWMA) needs to be further investigated.
There needs to be 'sunshine' placed on whether the current rift between the present St James Parish Council Mayor and the Secretary/Manager has anything to do with a lack of transparency, (re: a full and timely presentation) of the council's financial position to the Mayor.
'HOSTAGE'
The seeming willingness of the National Solid Waste Agency to reduce or withhold service for alleged non-payment (or in this case, tardy payment) of funds by the Council goes to prove that local government entities at the parish or communities levels can be easily held "hostage" by highly centralised national agencies, (especially if those grassroots agencies are run by the opposing political party).
On the surface it seems despicable that the National Solid Waste Management Agency would have the propensity to withdraw or compromise sanitation services which have a critical public health, safety and welfare perspective at the local government level. This reality (of parish council vulnerability) gives even more reason why parish councils should be administratively strengthened and fiscally empowered via relatively autonomous regional county councils towards a more timely provision of some of the currently more highly centralised national service delivery functions carried out by 'distant' Kingston-based government bodies, (e.g., community road repair and garbage collection).
I am, etc.,
G.O. WHITTAKER
garfield.whittaker@csun.edu
Department of Geography
California State University
Los Angeles, CA
Via Go-Jamaica
