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City Hall – restricted or incompetent?

Nov 17, 2009 Editorial

Guyana is like a child’s playpen with administrators pointing fingers here and there. There is also the case of if you don’t stop being nice to him I will not be nice to you. The most recent incident of the Local Government Ministry contending that it will not help City Hall unless the council collects some $100 million from the People’s National Congress Reform smacks of political adventurism.
A political party is not a legal entity and therefore cannot own property. The Ministry of Local Government should know this. If it does not, then there are lawyers in the administration who could make this point. The people indebted to the council are the members of the board of trustees. City Hall would have their names and it is they who should be made to pay.
But there, big and bold, is the statement that the People’s National Congress Reform owes rates and taxes. The statement goes further. It contends that the party has failed to pay any money on its party’s headquarters at Congress Place at Sophia.
No one, to our knowledge, pays rates and taxes in Sophia because the municipality is still to regularise that large community. It is not clear whether the council actually provides a service for Sophia.
The Mayor, Hamilton Green, acknowledged that rates and taxes are not collected from Sophia which is a new community—no more than 15 years old. But what about Congress Place? Perhaps, being a facility that has stood there for nearly three decades it was regularised.
And if that is the case then other buildings on the said location should have been paying rates and taxes, among them Guyana Power and Light, the building that once housed Guyana Water Inc., and some other structures.
But that is beside the point. For example, the Mayor says that he is still to classify the use of Congress Place. Is it a business place? Some say that it serves an educational purpose. In both of these cases the rates would be different.
Then there is the issue that has led to the disconnection of power from City Hall, the municipal abattoir, the Liliendaal Pump Station, the Stone Depot in Le Repentir Cemetery and some other locations.
Guyana Power and Light says that the indebtedness of the municipality has exceeded $600 million. That is a whopping bill and should not have reached that size. According to the records, the last time any money was paid to the power company was October last year.
The bulk of the bill comes from the use of the street lights. Indeed the city should be responsible for those lights which afford a measure of security.
Word is that the power company actually sought to work with City Hall to install more energy efficient lamps. Like so many other things, the discussion went nowhere; the lights continue to burn to their maximum and the cost continues to rise.
Last night, City Hall was in darkness except for those periods when the generator went into operation. But despite the disconnection, the debt continues to grow. The street lights are on and the municipal markets where some stall holders still have their independent meters are still with lights.
The last time the power company spared pretty little. Even the municipal day care centres were not spared. Public opinion caused the power to be reconnected at the day care centres. The government stepped in and eventually lights were restored to City Hall.
The government is now saying that it is not prepared to help City Hall until the PNCR pays. At the same time it is preventing the municipality to negotiate other revenue earning measures.
A lot is not right. On the one hand City Hall seems unable to manage its account and on the other, it is being prevented from expanding its revenue base and so be able to honour its debts.
Perhaps somebody wants an end to the City Council as we know it. Perhaps the council is incompetent.

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