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Completion of restructuring process requires new revenue base – City Mayor

Sep 02, 2008 News

City Hall’s restructuring plans, which commenced earlier this year, may be delayed to some extent since, according to City Mayor Hamilton Green, its implementation will require that the municipality have a boosted revenue base.

Without an expanded source of finance, Mayor Green said, the exercise could eventually translate into a retrenchment process, a move which was never intended for the municipality.

The intent of the process, he explained, was to enable better operation of the various departments with a view to having the municipality effectively carry out its mandate.

The state of the city entity, the Mayor said, can barely afford to carry out simple works in the city. He pointed out that even with the $15M assistance which was handed over to the Council to assist with Carifesta preparation, finances were insufficient to repair roads.

Mayor Green divulged that although the municipality continues to be cash-strapped, every possible measure is being employed to ensure that the raising of taxes does not have to become a compulsory factor.

At the moment, he disclosed, even if the Council was able to acquire all outstanding taxes, it still will not be adequate to manage the city.

It is for this reason, he said, that the Council has been contemplating making a request to Government for financial assistance.

Green is optimistic that the central administration could afford the Council a percentage of the lottery fund, since, according to him, the initiation of the lottery venture was an idea that the Council had proposed to the Government.

The city mayor explained that when the lottery idea was first introduced, it was related that the religious bodies would be concerned if it was implemented.

It was not very long after, the mayor said, that the same plan was brought on stream by Government as a supposedly novel idea.

Mayor Green speculated that if the Government is sincere about seeing development in the city, it will in no way hesitate to offer the municipality a percentage of the lottery fund which is due to the state.

Other areas from which the municipality could be afforded additional revenue, Mayor Green said, are from the container tax as well as the environmental tax.

He disclosed that the municipality has a great deal to do with the environment in the city and the resulting payment of tax, and is not able to even gain a cent in this regard.

In the meantime, Green said, the Council will continue to do whatever little it can. He added that sometimes people are not aware of the predicament that the City Council faces.

And due to the shortcomings, Green said, the restructuring process is likely to be continually hindered. However, he divulged, the Council will again seek the intervention of experts through a consultation process to help define the way forward for the municipality.

However, with the consultation approach, the City Mayor said, he is confident that the Council will be well on its way to being a revamped and efficient entity which is able to fulfil its mandate to the citizenry of Georgetown.

The restructuring process was engaged with an expectation that it would provide an outline of recommended objectives, strategies and policies intended to reshape the Council and provide more capacity for the municipality to significantly improve its service delivery.

It was disclosed by officials of the municipality that the implementation of the necessary measures would be complemented by the proposal of an organisational change designed to help the Council respond to the changing demands of the global and local environment, and pave the way for the formulation of a communications programme to ease the impact of the organisational change for workers.

The restructuring plan is expected to significantly revamp the operations of the Council, which have been in existence for almost 170 years.

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