The Opposition United National Congress (UNC) is proposing a radical overhaul of Local Government in T&T as it seeks to woo voters to give it a clear mandate in the November 28 elections.
The party is expected to launch the document later today. But a copy of the document obtained by the T&T Guardian details some of the changes which the UNC, led by Kamla Persad-Bissessar, wants to see.
In a preamble to the document Persad-Bissessar said the party believes that Local Government is where Government can be closest to the people and where it can make the most positive difference in the lives of citizens where they live.
She is lobbying voters to give the UNC a clear mandate in the elections, telling them: “Go out and vote on the day set aside for Local Government elections. It is very important that you vote for the UNC candidate.”
The document states that the party’s approach to development is to decentralise and spread development across the country. That, it said, was evidenced in the UNC’s approach to highway development and road improvement, in the spread of health services and the construction of hospitals, education and the construction of schools and the relocation of ministries, growth poles, economic zones and local economic development projects when the UNC was in Government from 2010 – 2015.
It notes that the aim of decentralisation is to bring health, education and other key services to where people live, to facilitate private sector interest in investment in regions and communities across the country, to create jobs where people live and to manage traffic flow so that gridlocks—North, South, East and West— at peak times are reduced.
The UNC manifesto notes that under the current system, Local Government bodies in Trinidad are very limited in what they can actually do to make the lives of the people they serve better because of limits to their power and limits to jurisdictional control.
It is proposing that a fund be established for each Local Government body, that all revenues due to Local Government from Central Government as well as revenues collected by Local Government will be put into that Regional Corporation, Borough or City Fund, and that the Central Government allocation to Local Government bodies would be on the basis of a quarterly block.
That, according to the UNC, would give Local Government bodies the flexibility in the execution of projects and would give communities a stronger say in priorities. I
It is also proposing that Local government bodies collect land and building taxes to supplement Central Government contributions to the Local Government Fund.