Region Six Councillors instructed to produce monthly written reports of work done in communities

Councillors in Region Six are now required to hand over monthly reports to Regional Chairman David Armogan, three days prior to every month’s statutory meeting held by the Regional Democratic Council.

The instructions were handed down by Armogan at the statutory meeting held on Thursday. His decision to implement the measure was made in an effort to ensure accountability and transparency since many of the councillors have not been attending meetings and making contributions to meetings when they do attend.

“One of the things that we have noticed is that quite a number of persons who are members of the RDC are not attending meetings regularly and that is one of the problems we are having because when people are not attending meetings the meetings finish very quickly and there are hardly any contributions from the councillors”, Armogan explained during an interview.

He stressed that these councillors have a responsibility to the people of the region and they were entrusted with that responsibility for specific geographic areas.

“They should be representing the interest of the people…You really can’t come here, spend an hour and report nothing as if you are not representing anybody,” Armogan lamented

All councillors, especially those not attending meetings, will be written to.

“…We are looking at the council in a holistic way so we can get councillors to perform better”.

The requirement, Armogan said, is not a new one but was done many years ago.

It was stopped because councillors were reporting verbally and regularly.

“So there was no need for that but now that people are not coming to meetings they are not saying anything, only a few people speak at these meetings so there is a need now for written reports so we know that councillors are working in the respective areas,” he explained.

Additionally, the councillors will now uplift their stipend on the day of the statutory meetings every month so that they are encouraged to be present. The law states that if a councillor is absent for three consecutive meetings, their seat will be considered vacant.