Local Govt Ministry to develop protocols for NDCs to follow to resolve common complaints

The Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development is in the process of developing protocols to be followed by Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) in resolving common complaints raised by residents.

This is according to subject minister Priya Manickchand, who explained that oftentimes, the reason some issues go unresolved is because NDC officials are not aware of the steps they can take.

During The Guyana Dialogue programme on last Thursday, the minister cited the common issue of a tree extending into a neighbour’s yard as an example. She explained that “if something comes into your yard, you’re allowed to cut it down, you’re allowed to remove it but NDCs may not actually be aware that that is an instruction or advice they can offer.”

She cited other scenarios such as a resident not weeding their yards or persons erecting structures that are not in alignment with building codes.

“So, if someone is not weeding their plot of land, this is the step that can be taken by the NDC, you serve notice, you get a court order, you go in and weed it, you send the bill to them. A lot of officials do not know what the process is. Or if somebody is building their home outside of the regulations or their shop or whatever, and they know this is wrong, they’re served the notice but they’re not sure what do after. So there has to be a lot of training and retraining, these are bodies that change and can change every two-three years, because that’s when you have elections. So there has to be some written up SOPs and protocols that can prevail overtime,” Manickchand explained.

She acknowledged that while many challenges remain to be addressed at the NDC level, significant efforts are underway to improve the quality of life in communities. She pointed to interventions made by central government to distribute garbage trucks and fire trucks to every NDC as well as to provide them with increased subventions.

Meanwhile, the minister also outlined that while efforts are being made at the level of central government, there is not much they can do when NDCs fail to deliver.

“These are elected officials, we can’t just walk into an NDC and say ‘you’re not functioning so all of you should go home and we can replace you with people who will’, there’s an election process that allows them to get in there,” she noted.