Latest update January 17th, 2025 6:30 AM
Garbage control to take precedence in City Hall’s 2014 budget
By Zena Henry
City Hall is seeking to make garbage control – dumping and collection – its number one priority this year. As the city continues to be plagued with rubbish pile-ups resulting from indiscriminate dumping, the Council is thus moving towards a 2014 budget that focuses earnestly on the management of garbage and its collection.
Finance Committee Chairman, Junior Garrett (standing) addresses the gathering during the last budget presentation.
Public Relations Officer Royston King told Kaieteur News yesterday that a consensus has been reached among Councilors, that the city’s current garbage situation is the first matter that should be addressed in this year’s budget. At an important meeting held on Wednesday to address the budget sums, King said that, “All Councilors present expressed, in particular, their view that the garbage situation must be Council’s first priority for 2014″.
“Indeed numerous accumulations of garbage in almost every section of the city continue to impact on the health of the environment and the public health of Georgetown.”
Councilor Oscar Clarke, Vice Chairman of the Finance Committee, advocated for a re-look of the Council’s budget which was shot down by the Mayor and majority of Councilors for its lack of depth and “unrealistic make-up.”
The Vice Chairman, it is understood, was very expressive in his remarks about the crisis the garbage situation is posing. It was therefore the collective expression by Councilors that more property cash should be spent in this area.
“Also, Councilors expressed concern about adequate resources to the Constabulary department and instructed the administration to contemplate ways in which more resources could be given to the Constabulary, as they are responsible for public security.”
King said that by the end of Wednesday’s meeting, “the administration was instructed to retool that budget to strengthen the major departments such as Solid Waste, Engineer’s, Public Health, the Constabulary and to increase the capacity of service.”
Another meeting will be held today, while hopes are that come next Monday, the new budget could be presented and passed at Council’s Statutory Meeting. Hostile clashes resulted over budget allocations at the last budget reading towards the end of last year.
The previously presented budget failed to get the support of the Mayor and City Councilors and was also rejected by the Local Government Ministry. The Finance Committee Chairman, Junior Garrett, had told Councilors that whether they approved the budget or not, he would be presenting the figures to the Local Government Ministry. The Finance Committee has been ordered, however, to rework the budget and equip it to suit major problems that continue to plague the city.
Garrett and his team budgeted $2,055,467,116 for the year 2014, taking into consideration funds allocated to the various Municipal departments, and funds allocated for the execution of city jobs. Councilors said that he failed to address the real issues posing difficulty to the Council. Several of them asked about the pursuit of delinquent tax payers and their prosecution. They questioned how funds would be used to improve the debt recovery unit and noted the low tone on the issue of property valuation as a means of revenue generation.
Mayor Hamilton Green at the time hammered the budget proposal by saying it lacked depth and does not cater for the duties and responsibilities of the Municipality. He spoke about the building and maintenance of roads and communities, while highlighting a need for generating revenue.
The Mayor charged that the budget was set “wittingly or unwittingly to embarrass the Council.” “The budget does not say anything about the Council’s constraints and confrontations, thus making it a nonsensical budget,” he told Garrett.
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