CITY HALL IN CHAOS

Nov 10, 2016 Editorial, Features / Columnists

One of the best things the government has done is to fulfill its promise to hold Local Government Elections (LGE) in its first year in office. People wanted change and were happy to have local government elections which were held on March 19, 2016 after an absence of 22 years.
It provided the people with the opportunity to elect their local leaders to govern their communities. Being the oldest and the largest municipality in the country, Georgetown is considered the most important city because it is the nation’s capital. City residents were fed up with the poor and bombastic management of the city by the former administration. The people believed that the newly elected counsellors would do much better.
Things started out well for the city but quickly deteriorated into the old management style of city politics. Misuse of the city financial resources by senior city officials after the elections resulted in late payment of salaries and wages to city employees. More problems ensued with the awarding of the parking meter contract to National Parking Systems (NPS)/Smart City Solutions (SCS) without approval by the city council. It was a controversial contract.
The decision to award the contract to NPS/SCS without the authorization of the City Council was enough to make anyone who has the City’s best interest at heart sick to the core. The contract was awarded without tendering, advertisement or consultation with the public. It appears that due diligence was not done before awarding the contract to NPS/SCS.
The contract offered huge tax concessions and a duration of 49 years while the city would receive 20 percent of the revenue. The value of the tax concessions was so massive that they raised questions about the ability and competence of City officials to award a contract of such magnitude. The Deputy Mayor found out that the companies had barely existed and that they had no experience in installing parking meters. But most important, this publication discovered that the Manhattan address listed by NPS was false.
The contract was characterized by the President as burdensome to the consumers. The Ministry of Finance deemed parts of the contract with regards to taxation as ignorant, and the Ministry of Legal Affairs described other aspects of the contract as onerous on the citizens. These scathing remarks resulted from a thorough and careful review of the contract by both ministries. It demonstrated a woeful lack of knowledge by those who negotiated the contract.
The City was in crisis as accusations of conflict of interest by the Deputy Mayor against the Mayor and Town Clerk over their controversial trip to Mexico and Panama paid for by the companies to examine parking meters which they had installed. Many believe that the installation of the parking meters in the city could devastate many businesses that are struggling to survive.
It seems that the city is bringing more hardships to businesses and to the people. First, it was the vendors, then the parking meters, followed by the container tax and the proposed increase in property taxes next year.
City officials have implemented policies without the approval of the Council and many of those policies are not in the best interest of the people. It is absurd to see such abuse of power by city officials who had criticized others in the past. Many believe that the city is back to its old crooked ways.
The government has allowed the City to proceed with the installation of the parking meters. The president’s clarion call for better management of the city and for better treatment of the vendors has gone unheeded.

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