Editorial | Rescuing local government

In the reconstruction after the devastation by Hurricane Melissa, Jamaica’s ‘building back better’ shouldn’t only be about the island’s hard infrastructure.

Government institutions – whose capacity to do things has been hollowed by years of neglect by a retreating and increasingly centralised State – also require attention. And none more so than the island’s local government system, the municipal corporations. Hurricane Melissa cruelly exposed their shortcomings.

In the aftermath of the Category 5 storm that left most of western Jamaica in ruin, it was expected that municipal authorities and their leaders would have been among the first responders in their jurisdictions. Like everyone, they appeared not only shell-shocked by the devastation of the storm. But worse, they seemed to have no idea what to do.

There were no plans, and even less resources with which to begin to mount a response to a crisis. So, the first significant provision relief was by private individuals and civic organisations, while communities waited on the central government to mobilise itself.

In other words, what Jamaicans witnessed was the failure of the idea of subsidiarity – the ability to make decisions and do things closer to where they impact people – that the local government system is supposed to encompass. Ironically, local government, after decades of perennial reform, is now embedded in the island’s Constitution.

HIGHLIGHTED INADEQUACIES

But Hurricane Melissa laid bare not only the weaknesses of the municipal corporations. It also highlighted the inadequacies in depending on an over-centralised governance and operational arrangement, especially in periods of crises. This situation is exacerbated by the deliberate diminution, over decades, of the central government’s technical capacities, making greater space for private players in the delivery of public goods.

In other words, it is not only the municipal authorities that have less money to pay for the maintenance of public infrastructure, fewer vehicles with which to respond to emergencies, or not enough technical staff to fulfil normal obligations, or to formulate and execute policies. It is a feature of the centre, too.

Hurricane Melissa, therefore, suggests the need for a national conversation on the role of the Jamaican State and whether its necessary retreat over the past four decades went too far. There should also be a determination of Jamaica’s commitment to local government, other than as a conceptual or instinctive ideal.

If Jamaicans say yes to local government, (re)building the institutional capacity of the municipal corporations will take time, and new and creative ways will have to be found to fund the bodies. In the circumstances, mergers of some of the corporations may have to be entertained to create viability in scale.

MUCH CAN BE IMPROVED

Hurdles notwithstanding, much can be improved in the short-term with respect to the quality of governance, accountability and efficiency and service delivery of local government – should their leaders have the ambition, and the central government is indeed committed subsidiarity and the decentralisation of authority.

Despite their financial limitations faced by councils, the Local Governance Act gives municipal corporations some leeway to do things, which ambitious, forceful and creative leaders can leverage in the interest of their constituents and to advance their agency, rather than the authorities operating as mere outlier appendages of the national government.

Further, the law allows for the national minister, through the Social Development Commission (SDC), to create parish development committees (PDCs) to help in the creation of strategic plans for parishes and otherwise promote community participation. Importantly, it is the PDC that is supposed to appoint half of the members of each municipal corporation’s Local Public Accounts Committee (LPAC), bodies that are to periodically review the operations of the corporations to ensure they follow ethical standards and that their financial and accounting affairs are in keeping with the law. These committees are to be chaired by one of the independent rather than elected members. Unfortunately, few of these are active, in part because the PDCs, where they exist, are largely dormant.

Ensuring that the parish development committees and LPACs are in place and operational, and with competent members, would be an important signal of an intention to lift the status and autonomy of the local government system. The council’s leaders should also exercise their right to appoint good, independent, though non-voting members to their committees that monitor the regular budget and spending of the corporations.

Doing these things doesn’t depend on anything else. It’s just good sense.