Municipal workers paid, but funds still low at City Hall

Aug 01, 2009 News

Delinquent taxpayers have begun to honour their obligations, a development which has furnished the Georgetown municipality with sufficient funds to facilitate the payment of salaries.
At least this is according to Public Relations Officer of the entity, Royston King. King told this newspaper that employees of the entity were paid in full yesterday.
He said that property owners have been responding favourably to calls by the municipality to pay their taxes, but noted that there is still need for others to honour their civic responsibility. The city entity in its quest to emphasise the urgency of its need had started to publish the description of properties in the daily newspapers.
With the assistance of the City Constabulary, court action against defaulters had also intensified, King disclosed.
He nonetheless commended the efforts of the taxpayers, adding that the municipality has put in place a plan that would allow them to make part payments.
The failure to pay the workers on the stipulated pay date, which has become a routine feature at the municipality, had even prompted a sit-in among Guyana Labour Union (GLU) represented workers.
In response to the protracted dilemma, GLU General Secretary, Carvil Duncan, had opined that the municipality should be more sympathetic to workers and have mechanisms in place to help them in such situations.
Even President of the Guyana Local Government Officers Union, Andrew Garnett, had described the situation as nothing less than frustrating. He speculated that the administration of the city entity is on a course of making excuses and does not seem willing to accept helpful suggestions to solve its financial problems.
At a media briefing last week Tuesday, Town Clerk, Mrs Yonette Pluck-Cort, revealed that the city entity was experiencing financial problems and may not be able to meet certain obligations on time. She cited the payment of workers as one of the obligations even as she speculated that funds would not have been readily available.
Pluck-Cort related that the municipality had been experiencing cash flow problems during the past month, thus there has been a shortfall in the entity’s anticipated revenue collection.
Last Wednesday, King had disclosed that while there were no significant developments in the municipality’s ability to garner sufficient funds, the Acting City Treasurer, Andrew Meredith, was expected to make some payments that same day.
He had underscored then that although the situation is indeed regrettable, workers have demonstrated patience and tolerance and have stood by the municipal administration. And in order to have the situation normalise, King said that the municipality was appealing in earnest to rate payers to come forward and make their payments urgently which could allow for the payment of all workers by yesterday, an expectation which was indeed met.
But in order to arrest the current financial problems, Pluck-Cort had revealed that the municipality is considering putting some new systems in place to deal with the delivery of service to the citizenry of Georgetown.
In this regard, she said that the Acting Treasurer has been tasked along with other department heads to make proposals.
Additionally, she revealed that the municipality will be incorporating some recommendations made by Commissioner of Inquiry, Mr Keith Burrowes, measures she anticipates will see an improvement in the entity’s ability to make accurate projections in the long run.

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Municipal workers paid, but funds still low at City Hall

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