Report suggests city owed in excess of $12B

Aug 09, 2012 News

The recent publicly disclosed report done by Ramon Gaskin that reflected numerous irregularities within the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), reveals that the outstanding rates and taxes owed to it is in excess of $12B.
A section of Gaskin’s report presented to the Ministry of Local Government indicated that the
Council seems to be taking a “lackadaisical” approach as it relates to the collection of taxes from commercial enterprises. The report stated that the monies include penalties accumulated from interest rates.
However, Mayor Hamilton Green in speaking to this newspaper yesterday disclosed that the Council’s hands are tied as it relates to that issue in particular.
Green said that the Council has taken many to court for outstanding rates and taxes and there are several cases pending for the last six to seven years.
He explained that all the Council is permitted to do as it relates to penalising citizens owing rates and taxes, whether private or commercial, is to pursue it as a court matter.
Green claimed that moves have been made to retrieve outstanding monies.
According to him, the M&CC is at a disadvantage as it has, on numerous occasions, addressed the issue of prolonged court cases, however “our concerns are seemingly not being taken seriously”.
Green disclosed that many years ago, the Council engaged in a meeting with the then Chancellor Desiree Bernard and Chief Justice Carl Singh to discuss the time taken to close related cases.
Green said that the two judges were “sympathetic” towards the Council’s plight and measures were brought forward. However, today “we remain as we were.”
“We had asked for a municipal court so that our matters can be addressed as priority. This would include matters of littering, as opposed to having to go to court and wait for murder cases to call. That hasn’t been granted either.”
Green also mentioned that the Council spoke to the Ministry of Local Government about implementing legislation to expedite the process of collecting outstanding taxes, such as possible seizure of properties.
The Mayor disclosed that the cases pending in court mostly comprise commercial entities.
The report stated that “many large commercial enterprises owe the Council millions of dollars but there is no aggressive and concerted action to recover these monies.”
Green pointed to the issue of businesses not paying the “correct amount” of rates and taxes since evaluation of the buildings to ascertain rates to be paid is not done.
The Ministry of Finance is tasked with the evaluation of buildings so that reflected rates can be paid to M&CC. Evaluation of buildings is supposed to be done just after they are completed and every five years thereafter. However, the Mayor said that the absence of this has caused some to pay rates below property value.
Green said that the Council has “on umpteen occasions” addressed the matter with Ministry of Finance and disclosed that as recent as late last year a meeting resulted in the Ministry saying it would recruit special officers to perform such duties, but Green said the Council “does not know what has happened with that promise”.
Green said that he is not certain that the figures reflected in Gaskin’s report are factual. However, if so, he said the Council would be relieved of a substantial amount of financial constraints if those monies are collected. ( Abena Rockcliffe)

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Report suggests city owed in excess of $12B

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