By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News |
LINDEN, REGION 10 — A sharp constitutional and administrative battle has erupted between central government and municipal authorities in Linden over the collection of municipal tolls on the Kara Kara Public Road, with Member of Parliament and Leader of the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), Amanza Walton, declaring Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Priya Manickchand’s cease-and-desist directive null, void, and ultra vires.
The dispute follows a formal ministerial order dispatched by Minister Manickchand to Linden Town Clerk Lennox Gasper, ordering the immediate cessation of all tolls and container fees levied at the Kara Kara toll booth. The municipality was warned that the charges lacked ministerial sanction and are therefore unlawful.
The Statutory Framework: Separation of By-Law Powers
Speaking to HGP Nightly News, Walton challenged the minister’s legal interpretation, emphasizing that the Municipal and District Councils Act (Cap. 28:01) deliberately separates the lawmaking function from the supervisory veto power:
- Municipal Prerogative: The power to formulate, debate, and pass municipal by-laws belongs exclusively to the elected Mayor and Town Council (M&TC), not the subject minister.
- Statutory Approval vs. Unilateral Revocation: The minister’s role is strictly confined to approving or rejecting by-laws submitted through formal statutory channels; a minister cannot arbitrarily manufacture or unilaterally revoke a municipality’s gazetted by-laws by administrative decree.
- Procedural Safeguards: Municipal by-laws require a mandatory 14-day public notification period. Once local representations are concluded, the Town Clerk must certify compliance before transmitting the instrument to the subject minister for formal gazetting.
“The council makes the by-laws, and the minister has the power to approve or reject it,” Walton explained. “I contacted Mayor Dominique Blair and asked him if the council had engaged in any discussion with the minister on this revocation whatsoever, and he confirmed none at all. There was no possibility that the correct statutory procedure was utilized to revoke the by-laws of the council.”
Standing By-Laws and the Defense of Local Autonomy
The FGM Leader noted that the Kara Kara toll by-laws were validly passed by the Linden Town Council under the previous APNU+AFC administration and duly approved and gazetted by the then-Minister of Communities and Local Government:
- No Due Process Revocation: Walton asserted that because the statutory mechanism for amending or repealing municipal by-laws was never initiated by the Linden M&TC, the minister’s letter constitutes an unlawful administrative overreach.
- Erosion of Fiscal Autonomy: In an official statement signed by Mayor Dominique Blair, the municipality denounced the directive as “legally questionable, internally inconsistent, and contrary to the constitutional principle of local democratic autonomy.”
- Central Government Revenue Squeeze: Mayor Blair maintained that central government is deliberately undermining the financial self-sufficiency of the mining town by stripping away its independent municipal revenue streams.
Central Government Position: “Null, Void, and Unlawful”
In her directive to Town Clerk Lennox Gasper—which was copied to Mayor Dominique Blair—Minister Manickchand argued that central government never authorized municipal road tolls along the Kara Kara corridor:
- Absence of Ministerial Approval: The Ministry maintained that no current statutory order or by-law authorizing tolls on the Kara Kara Public Road has been published under the authority of the sitting minister.
- Warning to Town Clerk: The communication cautioned municipal staff that any toll collected by the council, whether directly or through its appointed agents, is “null, void and unlawful.”
The Linden Mayor and Town Council affirmed that it is exploring judicial review proceedings before the High Court to safeguard the municipality’s statutory authority to raise revenue under the Municipal and District Councils Act.
