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New Amsterdam municipality being mismanaged – says PPP spokesman
Information Liaison to the Office of the President and Community Relations Officer attached to the Region Six Administration, Faizal Jaffarally, says that the New Amsterdam municipality is being mismanaged by those in authority.
Jaffarally reports directly to the Office of the President on these kinds of matters and during an interview with Kaieteur News, he accused the Mayor and Town Council of New Amsterdam of not providing accountability to the citizens of the town.
Garbage at the corner of Chapel Street, New Amsterdam
He stated that the M&TC, in recent times, has not carried out a single programme to the benefit of the citizens of New Amsterdam.
According to Jaffarally, had it not been for the intervention of the government on several occasions, the town would have fallen apart under its current management. “Were it not for the 30 Drainage and Irrigation (D&I) workers paid for by Central Government, the town would be in a mess,” he said.
He queried the use of all the taxes and fees that the council has been collecting over the years. “They generate millions of dollars in the market which was renovated at a cost of $105M by the government,” he said.
Speaking about roads, Jaffarally said that the government stepped in some four years ago and performed works on all the major thoroughfares in the town and that 29 roads will be rehabilitated this year.
He also said that the government has continued to make inroads into the development of the town with lighting along the entire of Main Street.
He is of the view that the municipality is not maintaining the canals that have been cleaned repeatedly by the Region Six Administration.
When asked about the position of the government and the squatting area known as Angoy’s Avenue and popularly referred to as “Cow Dam”, the official said that the government’s hands have been tied for years.
He recalled three persons from the political opposition who had taken the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) to court 10 years ago to block the government from taking possession of Angoy’s Avenue. That area is not a regularised housing area and falls under the purview of neither the New Amsterdam M&TC nor the Regional Administration of Region Six.
There is rampant illegal electricity connections and underdevelopment in the mass squatting area in New Amsterdam. The area has been left in the state it has been due to the court action taken by the New Haven Co-operative Society which, to date, refuses to have the area regularised.
Jaffarally expressed the need for residents in that area to want development but stated that the government cannot intervene unless the area is regularised.
He accused the M&TC of not giving account for the 2009 subvention to the township. New Amsterdam receives $10M annual subvention from the government to assist with works around the town.
“This is the only council not providing accountability for the subvention,” he said. He also accused the council of not having its accounts audited for a number of years.
Garbage collection around the town, he says, is a major problem and that the council had wanted to sell the government state-owned lands at Savannah Park to accommodate an industrial site.
Jaffarally said that the council wanted to sell government its own land and that was illegal. He stated that the industrial site, which would provide 20 plots of land, would have generated hundreds of jobs for the town.
However, because of the attitude of the council, the government had to move the industrial site to Belvedere on the Corentyne.
Regional Chairman, Zulfikar Mustapha, in an invited comment, stated that the M&TC, “is playing politics with the lives of the people of New Amsterdam and they have never been interested in the residents and development of New Amsterdam”.
The town council has since indicated that it would set the record straight. (Leon Suseran)
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