THE LOCAL Government Reform programme was given new life yesterday with the relaunch of the National Advisory Council.
The council was initially set up in 1995 but became inactive in 1998. Local Government Minister Portia Simpson Miller, issued warnings to Councils and stated she was dissatisfied with the progress of the reforms more than eight years after the idea was first raised.
"I am not satisfied with where we are eight years later with only one mayor being directly elected. I am not satisfied. I am not happy... It needs to be fast-tracked," she said during the relaunch, held yesterday at the Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston.
She said she hoped to "move Local Government as it has never been moved before" within the next three years and that with better co-operation and the strengthening of systems and communities, there would not be such a need to spend large sums of the budget on National Security.
Parish Councils, she said, had 12 months to come up with their development plans.
"I am going to be holding them to it," she added, noting that she would be making the lagging Parish Councils' plans public because they are "accountable to the people."
In addition, she said local authorities must demonstrate to the public that "you can manage what you have or you will never get the things that rightfully belong to the local authorities, to be returned to you.
MOVE DEVELOPMENT FORWARD
"Party politics has no place in governance. If we are going to have a process of discussion and move development forward, we will have to identify issues and be able to work around them," she warned.
The 24-member council is expected to spearhead national discussion on reform, looking at not only Government proposals but recommendations from various sectors, among them teachers, politicians, private and public sector, the church, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other members of the public, said Keith Miller, a consultant/advisor on Local Government reform.
