The Government used its majority in the National Assembly today to vote against an Opposition Motion, which sought to introduce a Local Government Commission (Amendment) Bill to allow for greater involvement in the decision making process by Local Government Authorities in the country.

Opposition Member of Parliament, Ganesh Mahipaul, who presented the Motion to the House a year ago said the amendments to the Local Government Commission Act of 2023 seeks to reinforce the principles of local democracy and autonomy as enshrined in the Constitution.  

“The intent of the framers of this Act was primarily for the Local Government Commission to oversee the procedure relating to staffing and then subsequently appointing based on a structure. What we have found Sir, with this current operation of the Local Government Commission is that they are not involving the Local Government authorities – the 70 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils and the 10 Municipalities – in the execution of that function to employ staff members at the respective Local Government Authorities or Local Government Organs,” MP Mahipaul told the House. 

The Opposition MP explained that the Bill seeks to address that critical issue by having Local Government Organs play a greater role by having them submit recommendations to the Local Government Commission before a decision is made with regards to staffing. 

He argued that it is not the intent of the Bill to usurp the authority of the Commission.  

“Sir, the Bill does not seek to take away any authority from the Local Government Commission for it is them who is vested with the authority to appoint but it must be done after after this meaningful consultation with the Local Government Authorities,” he said. 

MP Mahipaul submitted further that the proposed amendment was not in conflict with the Constitution, but Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall rejected that notion.

The Attorney General told the House that the Local Government Commission Act was birthed out of the Constitution, for which Article 78 (A) stipulates that the Commission is empowered to deal with all matters related to the regulation and staffing of local government organs as it deems fit. 

He said the Constitution does not provide for consultation. 

“This Parliament when it passed the Bill reregistered what the Constitution emphasized. We have to follow the Constitution, we don’t have a jurisdiction to depart but Parliament over emphasized it by putting it back again in the Legislation, in Section 3, which says ‘in the exercise of its functions’ whether the functions are recruiting staff, whether the functions are disciplining staff, whether the functions are overseeing the work of the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils and the Local Democratic Organs, whenever, it is exercising those functions, ‘the commission shall not be subject to direction or control of any authority. And that is in keeping with the language of the [Constitution]. This was not necessary, this is redundant but this House re-registered its pure position that no departure from the Constitution on this matter,” the Attorney General explained. 

Emphasizing that a subsidiary legislation cannot contradict the Constitution, the Attorney General told the House that the amendments sought by MP Mahipaul could only come by Constitutional reform, and the Government could not offer its support to the Opposition motion.

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