THE reform of the local government sector seems to finally be under way with the publishing of the national advisory council’s interim report on reform implementation strategies.

The report, which was publicly issued for the first time on Monday at a regional consultation of stakeholders in the eastern part of the island, details strategies to:

. define the structure and function of local government organisations;

. achieve participatory local governance;

. source financing; and

. create a legal framework to enable the programme to be effective.

To promote the document and encourage feedback from local government interests, the Ministry of Local Government & Environment will be hosting regional consultations in different sections of the island this week.

After the opening activities at the Medallion Hall hotel in Kingston on Monday, consultant for the local government reform programme in the ministry, Keith Miller, explained the purpose of the meetings.

“The consultation is to allow the stakeholders (parish development committees, chambers of commerce) to respond to the recommendations and proposals put forward in the report. The report is published as an interim document and the feedback will be used to re-examine those proposals to see to what extent the NAC would wish to modify (it), so it’s a further step in the consultation process,” he told the Observer, adding that there were consultations prior to the preparation of the document.

After more than a decade of being commissioned – by former prime minister PJ Patterson in 1993 – local government is still not where its proponents envision, and among other things, a change-resistant attitude among government workers and citizens alike is the condition being blamed for its slow progress.

According to Miller, who also heads the Local Government Reform Unit in the ministry, people are still stuck on thinking that central government is responsible for furnishing their every need.

“…residing in the organisation is that mindset from long ago; that reluctance to change that you have to break down…We as citizens need to take more responsibility, more interest in local governance,” Miller told the Observer in a previous interview.

Other weak areas, he said, were financial inadequacies, a lack of communication, especially with people on the ground, and restrictions from outdated laws.

“A lot of things can cause delay; it’s a very complex thing of inter-related actions. Reform in any situation is a complex situation especially when you’re talking about changing and it’s not just true of this particular process. It requires a lot of things to take place, including the changing of laws,” he said, making reference to certain laws which were penned decades ago but which do not fit the present situation.

“Public education and training have (also) been among the weak areas simply because when there is a cutback in the budget those are the areas that get slashed…The programme hasn’t had the kind of resources as other reform programmes have had (but) by far whatever expenditure has been made, has been rewarded in terms of gains,” he said.

Nonetheless, Miller said that significant progress has been achieved under the reform programme which is geared specifically towards implementing structures to ensure the effective delivery of service to citizens on a basis that is financially sustainable.

According to Miller, parish councils now contribute to their own financial viability with each council getting 90 per cent of all property taxes collected in the parish, and the remaining 10 per cent going to the Equalisation Fund to assist parishes that are not so well off. For building, planning and sub-divisions, councils now get 20 per cent of all revenue collected, up from 5 per cent in the early nineties, making the total amount received by all councils in 2005, $261 million, up from $250,000 in the early nineties.

Other proposals put forward by the committee include dedicating motor vehicle licences to road repairs.

“Twenty-five per cent of the amount of revenue for motor vehicle licences collected stays in the parish in which it was collected. The other 75 per cent goes into a national pool of funds distributed to other parishes based on the number of metres of road in that parish. The reason for that is that motor vehicle licences can’t really trace vehicles to a particular parish, so it’s quite equitable,” said Miller.

But while this has improved the financial state of the councils, Miller says they don’t have all the money they want.

“Councils get $800 million to deal with drains. It’s not sufficient but if the required amount is say $2 billion, how do we find a way to reach a middle ground? It’s not by sitting down and waiting on central government, we must find the money,” he said, hinting at the ways in which individual parish councils raise funds.