Sashane Shakes – Staff Reporter
The Parish Development Committee (PDC) has been revamped and re-launched, but Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Desmond McKenzie, is warning the elected executives to operate with integrity, as he will not be tolerating any act that may tarnish the PDC name and humiliate him.
“There are serious discrepancies that can embarrass the country and I’m not prepared to take any form of embarrassment. This administration is not going to take any embarrassment.
Head of the PDC, Minister McKenzie continued that, “I want the PDC’s to work, but the PDC must work in the way that it’s constituted to work. It is not to work for the benefit of any individual who is going to write the Prime Minister of Jamaica because they couldn’t get anywhere with me, complaining that their mortgage and their motor cars will be taken away because of lack of money.”
To remove any confusion among the public in terms of political affiliations affecting the credibility of the PDC, he was quick to point out that the PDC is a non-partisan, community-based organization. “It is not about the party that you support and even if you support the party, it is about the collective response that we as elected representatives will bring to the table in this new maneuver,” he said.
Having faced challenges in the past, the PDC has aspirations to be more structured in their duties and responsibilities to support good governance and sustainable development. With that, during the re-launch, Local Government Reform Programme Project Manager, Clive Edwards, outlined the key tenets of the Local Government Act (LGA) and Executive Director of the Social Development Commission (SDC) Dr. Dwayne Vernon addressed the role of the SDC and the PDC within the context of the LGA.
The PDC is a partnership of stakeholders inclusive of civil society (including representatives from Development Area Committees within the parish), elected officials (MPs and Councillors), State Agencies, local businesses and other groupings, which assist the local authorities to coordinate and monitor local development process at the parish level.
November, which is observed as local government and community month, is being piloted by the theme ‘Protecting the vulnerable, establishing hope through local governance’.
