Bobby Montague

As I listened to the minister of state in charge of local government, Robert Montague, on a recent newscast on Power106 FM, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. For according to him, the local government reform programme had been set back another year and incumbent consultants would stay in place.

Just last week, there was a loud outcry about the level of fees being paid to divest the sugar factories, but does anyone have any idea how much we have spent so far on consultants for this so-called local government reform programme which seems to have been going for over a decade? It must be costing us a pretty penny but we have nothing to show for it.

I am amazed that the Government can be continuing this nonsense at a time when the prime minister is talking about cutting back on Government. Isn't it obvious to them that so-called local government is just another useless layer of government? How many of us even know our councillors aka local government representatives? How many communities have ever made representation to the councils to have something done and actually had them respond with action (and not a bagga mout)? When do we hear anything about most of the mayors and other officials apart from when they are going off on junkets to the Bahamas or Switzerland?

COUNTY COUNCILS

Responsibility for street lights should be removed from parish councils.

To get government expenditure back under control and give taxpayers some value for money, what we need to do is cut out parish councils and replace them with county councils. This is not a novel idea, for it was set out (after much study) in a well-laid out document over a decade ago. That consolidation would require no more than around 80 representatives as opposed to the some 227 parish councillors that we now have. What on earth do we need 14 mayors and 14 bureaucratic structures for, when we have only two cities, Kingston and Montego Bay? So three mayors, one for each county would be more than enough.

As I understand it, the main functions of the parish councils are public health, some water supplies, fire service, poor relief, some level of town planning, local government roads, markets, street lights and parochial matters like bushing open land and community facilities such as playfields.

Almost all these functions are overlapping with other agencies. Just recently, the Government instituted a road maintenance fund based on a levy on petrol. Shouldn't all roads be, therefore, centralised under the National Works Agency instead of being splintered all over the place? After all, when you approach your councillor to fix the parish council or farm roads all you get anyway is the "there is no money" excuse.

So what about welfare programmes aka "poor relief"?: Why can't they be simply taken over by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security which has the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) and other such programmes as well as the bureaucracy that can oversee the infirmaries?

Street lighting? Ah, come on! When the street lights don't work, you simply call the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) and they deal with it and if we adopt the county council model, they can deal with the parochial issues, such as drawing up schedules for new areas to be lit.

Water supply? Don't we have a National Water Commission with so much money that they can spend over half billion dollars on billing system? So why should they have a problem dealing with a few extra local water supplies?

Markets used to be handled quite well by the Metropolitan Parks and Markets which has changed its name to National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA). Why can't they take back that function? With a fully blown Ministry of Health, we certainly don't need a different bureaucracy at the local level to deal with public health and the bushing and upkeep of playfields etc., which can be done by the Social Development Commission while the fire service remains the responsibility of the county councils. All other parochial issues like zoning can be handled by the county councils too. So what on earth do we need 14 bureaucracies for?

Right now, the entire discussion about public sector cuts is swirling around which ministries to eliminate apart from the Ministry of Sports which should be combined with Education and Information, which should go back under the prime minister's office with a minister of state.

JOBS FOR THE BOYS

I really don't see what great savings are to be made by cutting ministries. Instead, the ministers should be put to work to justify the existence of the over 200 statutory bodies, government companies and executive agencies that are under their portfolio, for many of these were simply established to provide "jobs for the boys and girls" and have never given taxpayers any value for money.

But we are not serious about cutting governmental expenditure, are we?

Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.