THE Association of Local Government Authorities of Jamaica (ALGAJ) has said that recent happenings have led it to conclude that parish councils are under siege by central government.

In a recent release issued to the media, ALGAJ accused Local Government Minister Dean Peart and the ministry of assuming “the posture of an opposition against the (leadership) of the local authorities”, adding that it was unaccustomed to this.

At the heart of its discontent is the handling of the recent audit reports of several parish councils islandwide, which it said has “given the public the view that the local authorities were incompetent and unwilling to follow guidelines”.

ALGAJ said the audit reports and subsequent revelations had showed that the “very auditors were not aware of a Cabinet decision, which should have influenced their comments”.

The July 30th Cabinet decision gave local authorities leave to issue up to $250,000 for emergency works and drain cleaning activities without approval from the National Contracts Commission or the Contractor General.

But ALGAJ head Milton Brown said the ignorance of the auditors about this decision had caused the authorities to be painted in an unfavourable light.

“They have borne down on the councils and the local authorities for contravening the guidelines without reference to this Cabinet decision…” Brown said. “It was a Cabinet decision from 2000, but the comments that were made in the audit failed to recognise it… Some of the comments that were made were made with the auditors not being aware of the decision at Cabinet.”

Furthermore, he said the approach to handling the matter was divisive.

“The position being taken by the minister in many of his utterances is like the ministry, the minister and the local authorities are not on the same team working towards the same objectives. It’s like them versus us,” Brown said.

He noted, however, that ALGAJ takes no issue with the audit.

“The audit is ongoing. We have been audited every year and we can’t have a problem with the audit,” he said. “We want the audit because we want to improve our service to the people and we want to improve our accountability so we don’t have a problem with the audit.”

But Peart has dismissed the association’s claims that they were under siege.

“I don’t know what they are talking about. I am doing my job. I intend to audit all of them (parish councils). I have no intention of doing one and not doing the others. I am sending all the audits to the Auditor General so he can also do his audit whether it’s the PNP, JLP, or no P at all. I’m doing that,” he said.

He was also dismissive of claims that the audit was being used to ensure victory in the upcoming local government elections.

“We started this audit from way back when… It is a management tool – you correct the thing and move on,” he said, adding that the protest from the parish councils – the majority of which are headed by councillors of the Jamaica Labour Party – have nothing to do with the Cabinet decision as they have claimed.

“The procedures were breached and we are saying that they are going to be operating under the procedures that they are supposed to be operating under. We are saying that the parish councils must be run and run properly and they must abide by guidelines,” Peart said.