OBSESSED WITH POWER

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Jun 25, 2016 Editorial, Features / Columnists

It appears that power has seeped into the heads of those at the Georgetown City Council who signed a contract without knowing what they would get. They did not even inform the Deputy Mayor and the City Councilors about their trips to Mexico and Panama.
The deal was so secretive that the City Engineer was not invited to accompany them. The government must reign in the Mayor, Town Clerk and the Finance Committee Chairman (described as the Almighty Trio by the Deputy Mayor) for their reprehensible behaviour. They have defied the Minister’s ultimatum to stop the project until a review of the contract is done. The fact that the Mayor has discredited GOOGLE and Wikipedia, the world’s best known research and information engines shows her arrogance and lust for power.
During the PPP reign, the Mayor who was then the deputy was as quiet as a lamb. City Hall had to carry out the instructions of the last government, but now that the APNU government is in power, she believes that now is their time to get rich. The arrogance at City Hall was displayed by the Finance Committee Chairman, who at a press conference said, “I have no apologies to make to anyone; I am getting like Mr. Harmon.”
Even the former Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee had to warn them not to go down the same road as the PPP.
Mr. Clarke’s expression has alluded to the fact that the culture of governance practised by members of the APNU+AFC government invariably influences the type of behaviour and governance at City Hall. This is a stunning indictment on the government and a subtle acknowledgement that it is corrupt.
He made the assertion to justify the awarding of the parking meter installation contract to National Parking Systems/Smart City Solutions; two barely known companies. National Parking Systems seems to be a “fly by Night Company” with no known address and no experience in installing parking meters.
Smart City Solutions appears to be a dubious company that is managed by “non-descriptive characters.”
The protocols which Mr. Clarke claimed to have followed in signing the parking meter contract should have allowed him to inform and seek consensus from the Deputy Mayor, City Councilors, stakeholders and the public about the project.
It is immoral, unethical and corrupt for the Mayor and Town Clerk to award contracts without public tender which this government when in opposition, had criticized the PPP for doing. If it was wrong then, it is wrong now and the government will face the music if it allows the parking meter project to continue. Like the government which has not done due diligence on several of its appointees, including some ambassadors, the City has not done due diligence on the companies.
The City is in chaos and its power drunk administrators feel that they have the power to do what they want and the media and the people should remain silent. However, the Deputy Mayor has brutally criticized their behaviour. He asserted that the Mayor and City Council has become a sickening bed of corruption and that such levels of arrogance are nauseating and sickening. They take Guyana right back to the days of executive thuggery.
Their high-handedness is frightening and is tantamount to spitting in the face of the citizens of Georgetown. It is insane. He insists that there is no transparency and accountability at City Hall but an obsession for power by the Mayor, Town Clerk and Finance Committee Chairman.