Rambachan slams no-show local government reps at LG forum

File: Suruj Rambachan

Several local government representatives failed to attend a forum Sunday organised Sunday by Local Government Minister Suruj Rambachan at the  Chaguanas Borough Corporation. And many others arrived an hour late for the event that was scheduled to begin at 9.30 in the morning.

That made Rambachan question the dedication of the people elected to serve at the local government level. The minister reported that only 72 per cent of local representatives turned up and many were late.

Media reports say among those were were punctual were Congress of the People (COP) members, San Fernando Mayor Navi Muradali and Chairman of the Arima Borough Corporation Ghassan Youseff.

Rambachan said, “I am disappointed that out of 107 local government representatives in the People’s Partnership, it is only about 72 percent who are present here this morning and further the local government representatives have no right to be here at 10.30 am for a meeting that started an hour ago."

He added, “There is no excuse whatsoever on the part of any chairman or any local government representative who comes late to these meetings. 

"If you are interested in the development of the country, if you are interested in People’s Partnership as a government, then your duty as having accepted the title of a local govt representative to put your best foot forward and be duty bound to attend these meetings and be part of the process of the effort.”

The minister said discipline “must be the number one priority”. He said that is why he is sending an attendance list to the Prime Minister. “We cannot win the next local government elections if we cannot attend meetings," Rambachan said. "There are many important things that will be said here that are important to the effort out there,” he added. 

Rambachan said there is no time to relax because constituents are growing tired of “our promises and excuses.”

He said, “We came into office accompanied by a wave of very high expectations. The people want those expectations to be fulfilled. They are not concerned about resource limitations, they are not concerned about work attitude of workers in the corporation they are not concerned about the past and what we had inherited. 

"They want their problems solved and they want us to find ways and means to solve their problems. In that regard they are growing tired of our promises and excuses.”

Rambachan also addressed internal problems among representatives. “In too many of our corporations we are focussed on toilet paper issues and that is taking away from the potential and taking away the energy from dealing with more important issues. It distracts. This is happening in our corporations and this must stop.”

He called for leadership. “Chairman and Mayors you have a particular role and responsibility to do that. Too many corporations are sitting on the brink of losing simply because people on the outside are seeing disunity and when people see disunity among the leadership then the confidence in the political arm of the corporation deteriorates. We have to change that today.”
The minister wants a performance evaluation to be conducted to determine who will be nominated for the Local Government elections in 2013.