What are they hiding?
Published:Thursday | July 9, 2020 | 12:13 AM
THE EDITOR, MADAM:
Thanks for your editorial ‘Municipal corporations must own their power’, and in particular for reminding us that “the law mandates the councils to establish mechanisms that facilitate the participation and empowerment of civil society and communities in local governance processes”.
I have been trying (without success) for about six years now to get ready access (online) to the minutes of the monthly meetings of the St Mary Municipal Corporation. My requests have been made personally, and also as secretary and then as public relations officer of our local Oracabessa Community Development Committee (CDC), supposedly the official voice of civil society in our area.
Even my application via the Access to Information Act in November 2019 has not made any difference (the oversight mechanism for the access to information process seems as ineffective as the oversight of CDF funds). I have also tried to contact the minister with responsibility for local government, but no response.
So, is the St Mary authority trying to hide incompetence or corruption? Could it be both?
PAUL WARD
Oracabessa