Latest update December 23rd, 2024 3:40 AM
Grading the City Council Administration
Dear Editor,
After observing for more than two years now, how the capital of Guyana, Georgetown is being administered, I feel compelled to issue a report card of the performance of the Town Clerk who is its Chief Administrative Officer.
Accountability: F
A big fat F in this area as the citizens still await the effecting of a comprehensive forensic audit of the Council’s accounting and human resource records dating back to 1994.
Transparency: F
A definite fail grade in this area with the hiding of the parking meter contract from the citizenry and even the Councillors themselves with the exception of the Fantastic Four, for doling out massive contracts to friends without bidding or adhering to tender board procedures and for travelling frequently without even notifying the Council
Credibility: F
Since the single sourcing of the Parking Meter Company without consultation, and the renting of portable toilets at 82,000 each per month, damages the credibility of the individual and the Georgetown Municipality as a whole, an F would have to be given for this area.
Competence: F
His initial failure to carry out a directive from Cabinet which had asked the .Council to suspend the parking meter by laws, the continual bankruptcy of .the Council and the dilapidated state of all municipal buildings headed by City Hall itself in which he proudly sits would earn him a super F.
Caring Nature: F
In this area he gets an F for his ill treatment of the vendors who have been .bullied and chased from pillar to post, for his abuse of the Cosmetologists .who have been dumped on the Merriman’s Mall in what is now a shantytown, and for the exploitation of Council’s workers that he pays late almost every month and fails to give them proper tools and equipment to work with.
Blaming others for their incompetence: A
For this subject The Town Clerk passes with flying colours as he is well known for blaming the citizens for the heaps of garbage around the city rather than himself for failing to pay the contractors and the City Constabulary for not charging litterbugs, for blaming the weather patterns for continuous flooding rather than the shoddy work done by his ‘special’ contractor and his engineers who failed to maintain the integrity of the drainage system
Ability to Think Strategically: F
This individual actually earned an F minus in this area as rather than thinking practically and strategically he instead dreams up some irrational, far-fetched and impracticable ideas such as deploying drones to keep an eye in the sky over the vendors, to set up a petting zoo and presidential park on the Merriman’s Mall and to build modern shopping malls in the city even though City Hall is supposedly broke.
Hiring Top Talent: F
Nepotism, Cronyism and Favoritism are the hallmarks of this gentleman’s term in office. Ability, experience, knowledge and competence are not prerequisites for a job there, instead what is required is that you be a church pal to the gang, a relative to a senior officer of the Council or a friend of one of the big enchiladas at City Hall. All in all, this individual has been an enormous failure that has resulted in the city becoming a failed, bankrupt, garbage infested, unlivable.
Riley Matthews
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