LACK of funding was this week identified as one of the most fundamental setbacks for parish councils, as a Joint Select Committee of Parliament continued its review of proposals for local government reform at Gordon House.

The Association of Local Government Managers (ALGM), in a submission to the committee, said that funding was among the fundamental problems which has plagued the councils over the years.

ALGM president, Ian Reid, the secretary/manager of the St James Parish Council, said that this included inadequate pool of funds to pay for the functions and services that fall under the administrative responsibility of the council; the absence of a clearly understood and well-defined formula for allocation from the consolidated funds through the General Assistance Grant programme; and the unnecessary burden caused by the current Local Government funding framework.

Reid suggested that recommendations from the National Advisory Council for financing the councils should be acted upon promptly, but cautioned against confirming the Parochial Development Fund (PRF) as the primary vehicle for financing the councils.

“Whilst this situation is what obtains today, we do not believe this is practical and sustainable into the future, unless other revenue sources are added,” Reid said.

He said that while the PRF’s main revenue sources are receipts from property taxes and motor vehicle licence fees, “neither item in its existing legal structure, even at capacity, is buoyant enough to fund an effective delivery of service by the councils”.

He said, for example, that the St James Parish Council collected $140 million, or 60 per cent of the approximately $210 million in projected property taxes in 2006/2007. But he said the council was, at the same time, faced with expenditure of $150 million for public cleansing, $80 million for street lighting, and $10-$20 million for administration, which he said demonstrated that even at capacity, the PRF was inadequate.

Reid was supported by Tubal Brown, president of the Association of Superintendents of Roads and Works, who said that the Parochial Revenue Fund’s yield was far outweighed by the requests made on it.

“As a consequence, we will continue to have our road network in their present state, that is being unable to properly maintain the drivable roads while those requiring rehabilitation will continue to get increasingly worse,” Brown said. Arising from this, he said, would be civil disobedience, “a situation which is widely known to be untenable”.

According to Brown, the superintendents embraced recommendations to expand the sources of funding and suggested that any departure from them must give rise to the floating of bonds.

The committee also heard from Atherine Lee, secretary of the Western Region Sub-committee on Local Government, who presented a proposed constitution for parish development committees as the main civil representatives in each parish.

The joint select committee which is chaired by Minister of Local Government and Environment Dean Peart is reviewing the recommendations from the National Advisory Committee on Local Government Reform, which has proposed changes to the system.