Lethem Mayor reacts to “disrespectful” remarks of PPP GS

Jul 13, 2016 News

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Mayor of Lethem, Carlton Beckles, is taking People’s Progressive Party (PPP)’s General Secretary, Clement Rohee, to task for what he believes are disparaging remarks not only about the Region Nine municipality but also Central Government.
Rohee, during press conference last week, said, “Central Lethem has become a ghost town with considerably reduced economic activity…the state of the community has degraded due to mismanagement by the Municipality and Central Government.”
The critical remarks were contained in an article published in the Sunday Edition of Kaieteur News and captioned “Amerindians should be consulted on development.”
Beckles said he is not prepared to take the remarks contained in the article lightly. He rejected the notion that mismanagement of the Lethem Municipality occurred since he took office in April.
He said that even before the ruling administration (A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) had been in office for just over a year the economic activity had already slowed down in excess of two years prior.
The Mayor claims he was long aware of this development. He explained that this was particularly evident when the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) established a branch in Lethem and was given special concessions.
The concessions were warranted, he said, because the economic situation could not have ideally sustained a bank. “They were given that so that we can say that a bank is operating in Lethem,” said Beckles who pointed out that this allowed for the realisation of a commercial area.
However, he added, “While the idea of a commercial area was good, the timing for a commercial area was bad.” He noted that while a number of persons were able to acquire lands in the commercial area, they were faced with the responsibility to commence construction six months after they would have acquired lands, and to complete it within two years.
Loans were made available to these individuals through the bank. Beckles is, however, adamant that “the commercial area was established as a smoke screen.”
He shared his conviction that there was in fact a deliberate plan to give the illusion that some measure of development was occurring in Lethem. “It was built depending entirely on Brazil…The Brazilians were supposed to support it. But the Brazilian economy has declined,” said Beckles.
He disclosed that while previously the Brazilian Real (currency) was BRL$1 to G$112, it is now trading at as little as G$60 and G$65.
“The Brazilians were the ones who were sustaining the businesses,” said Beckles, who revealed that several of the persons who were able to acquire lands and took bank loans could not have sustained their businesses and therefore started to sublet in some cases to Chinese and Brazilian nationals.
The Mayor noted that the bank has even started a cycle of repossession because some persons have defaulted on their loans.
Beckles lashed out at Rohee for highlighting measures to help bolster the economy in Lethem but failed to do so while his party was in government.
“In 23 years he never spoke about agro-processing…His Excellency (President David Granger), every time he comes to Lethem, he speaks about agro-processing in all corners of the Rupununi…Being the Mayor of Lethem we are now concentrating on trying to get the Business Ministry to finish the industrial area so that we can have factories being established so that we can create jobs,” Beckles disclosed.
He is confident that once this is in place the economy will revive. “The PPP had it (Lethem) long but they placed the cart before the horse,” said Beckles as he asserted that “Mr. Rohee is simply trying to play a blame game.”
NEW PROJECTS
Since taking office, Beckles (an APNU+AFC candidate) said that his municipality has embarked on a number of projects. Among these he mentioned ongoing rehabilitation of the Lethem market. He said that before taking office, the market had a mere 43 per cent occupancy.
The current state of affairs, Beckles intimated, is that “we now have more applications for stalls than the amount of stalls that we have in the market.”
He added, that while it is not possible to give all applicants a favourable response we are currently trying to, at least, acknowledge receipt of their applications.
Also the municipality is looking to rehabilitate the sports facility at Lethem, which, Beckles said, has been neglected for a number of years. This will involve the construction of a 640-foot concrete wall on which businesses can opt to place advertisements. The money from the advertisements will be used to further develop the facility, Beckles related.
He mentioned other sport development work, and even revealed plans for the soon introduction of a school bus service.
This service will cater to a reduction of the travelling expense parents incur to send their children to school. According to Beckles, currently parents are expected to pay about $2,500 to get a single child to school but with the bus service this will be reduced to $1,000.
But this is not all the municipality has been doing.
Beckles said that the municipality is even giving attention to streetlights and has already installed some 40.
“From our subvention we have budgeted for more street lights…this Council desires to see the entire of Lethem with street lights because it is one of the main deterrent to crime,” asserted the Mayor.
Given the efforts that have already been employed by the Lethem Municipality, he said, “It is of concern when a politician can speak so low to achieve cheap political mileage.”
He noted that residents of Lethem are no longer fed merely propaganda but rather they have access to a radio station (95.1 FM) which provides news all the way from Georgetown.
“They can no longer fool the people in here (Lethem)….” said Beckles, as he called attempts to tarnish the reputation of the municipality and Central Government “disrespectful.”
Beckles is convinced that the PPP is hoping to bring the management of the municipality in disrepute in hopes of gaining total control at future elections.

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