MONTEGO BAY, St James — Councillor Charles Sinclair (Jamaica Labour Party, Montego Bay North East Division) has expressed belief that strengthening the country’s local government system will allow for better representation at the municipal level islandwide.

Addressing last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation (SJMC), Sinclair argued that giving municipal corporations more teeth in the handling of the people’s business will evoke a higher level of trust and dependency from the citizens in each parish. He pointed out that the conversation surrounding local government reform has still not borne any fruit as the municipal corporations are still being limited in the actions they can independently take to serve people.

“In every parish we have municipal corporations that are the local government for the parish, but the things that we can do, should do, or [are] even authorised to do, it is as if you have some big brother standing somewhere and say ‘but you can’t’,” Sinclair said.

“For some time now we have been talking about the National Works Agency’s [absence]…and the National Works Agency has still not appeared,” the councillor added.

To further drive home his point, Councillor Sinclair brought attention to the SJMC’s attempt to sell three lots in the Ironshore community. According to Sinclair, the municipal corporation has indicated this interest since 2015 and has still not received the go-ahead from central government.

“We are trying to sell, with the citizens’ consent, three lots, because Ironshore does not have a community centre, and for those funds not to be taken and expended anywhere else but to be expended on another lot which is in the name of the municipal corporation, for the construction of a community centre for the benefit of the citizens,” Sinclair explained.

“The idea is to transfer the capital resources into a capital resource on property that is still in the name of the municipal corporation and we have been waiting seven years. We still have not completed the process and we are talking about reform?”

“If the parish council, under the Local Governance Act, wants to rent a property that is owned by the municipal corporation, after many years of discussion of reform you still have to apply to the minister to get approval,” said Sinclair.

He insisted that strengthening local government will allow each municipal corporation to advocate the specific needs of the people living in their locality.

“We need to, as local government practitioners, be strong in our advocacy. We need to be strong about the need for real and not any fake… local government reform. We have to demand real reform so that the municipal corporations can be more responsive to the needs of the people in a particular locality. What may be needed in St James or Trelawny may be different from what is needed in St Mary,” said Sinclair.

“Where is the autonomy that we would expect from a municipal corporation in order to be more efficient and responsive to local needs?” he questioned.

Sinclair expressed confidence that local government reform giving more support to the municipal corporations will result in larger voter turnout in local government elections as more people will see the “value in going out and voting for the best person who can advocate their position at the municipal corporation level”.

“I am certain that when that is done we will have real democracy and a wider voter turnout,” said Sinclair.

Sinclair won support from Montego Bay Deputy Mayor Councillor Richard Vernon who has, over the past few months, been very vocal on the issue of local government reform.

“If you look across the length and breadth of the global political economy, you will realise that developing countries have robust local government systems. Their systems are very strong,” Vernon said.

“The local government system, in particular municipal corporations, have a capacity to respond, and if they are properly funded they can carry out large-scale developments within any municipality,” he said.