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2008 “A very frustrating” year for City Hall
– Mayor Greene
Many organisations have had their share of trouble for this year, but somehow still managed to execute most of their plans. However, for the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown, the year was ‘very frustrating’.
Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green said that nothing much happened for the Council this year. Instead, the Council encountered more problems.
Mayor Hamilton Green
Mayor Green said that, to solve City Hall’s problems, there needs to be more money and manpower.
There was the state of the Le Repentir Cemetery, the conflict with the Guyana Labour Union, tax collection, and the most recent issue — the city drainage.
The Le Repentir Cemetery
The Mayor and City Council opted to privatise the Le Repentir mortuary, which had been in a state of disrepair for several years. The ensuing contract was supposed to have included the clearing of the cemetery, the construction of a chapel area, a walkway to the mortuary, and the completion of the freezer to hold decomposing bodies.
Following an unsuccessful tendering process for the privatization of the mortuary, the City Council announced that the process will be reopened. To date, City Hall has not made any headway in the second tendering process.
As such, another year has passed and the Le Repentir mortuary remains in a state of disrepair. Moreover, the cemetery is still overgrown with bush.
On many occasions, workers at the mortuary are forced to work with decomposing bodies a few feet away in wooden boxes. The bodies are dumped there by the Lyken Funeral Home, which is contracted by the Guyana Police Force to keep the remains of persons who die under suspicious circumstances.
The M&CC and Guyana Labour Union
Since last year, the Guyana Labour Union and the Mayor and City Council have been in discussion on a number of issues. These included leave passage assistance for workers, severance payments, a refund of the pension, the restructuring of the redundancy clause, and a 10 per cent increase in remuneration for workers.
However, the parties failed to come to a mutual agreement, forcing the matter to go to arbitration.
This gave rise to another issue. City Hall wanted one arbitrator, while the Union was calling for three. After the parties could not agree on the issue, the Union threatened industrial action.
Eventually, the Ministry of Labour intervened, and both parties are now engaged in discussion with three arbitrators who were appointed by the Ministry of Labour.
Since the ministry’s intervention, there has been one meeting, with a second scheduled for tomorrow.
City Hall Tax collection
With the aim of collecting the much-needed revenue owned to them, the City Council had started a massive rates and taxes collection process.
As this process began, several persons were taken to court for not paying their rates and taxes, while others opted to visit the Council to work out payment plans. The Council had also called on the Valuation Department to assist in revaluing people’s properties so that persons can begin paying the right amount of rates and taxes.
The department had indicated its willingness. However, it is still not clear whether or not that exercise started.
All these efforts were made to collect the much-needed revenue for the City Council.
City Hall and City Drainage
At the beginning of the rainy season, the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority had announced that the City Council is responsible for city drainage. Once again, the mayor said that the Council is ready to deal with that issue, except that it does not have the resources, which include money, manpower and the machines.
According to the mayor, since the 2005 flood, the Council had been lobbying for an alternative source of electricity for the Liliendaal pump. To date, the mayor said, all he has received are promises by the administration.
In the meantime, the Council has pledged to continue efforts to serve the citizens within its limited resources.
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