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Why is govt. allowing these taxes to be imposed by City Hall?

Sep 06, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
I am bewildered as to why the Government of Guyana allows the Mayor and Councilors of the City of Georgetown to continually pile on more and more taxes, fees and punitive fiscal measures against the citizens and businesses whilst their accounting records and financial transactions have not been audited in more than two decades. Every citizen knows that apart from the legal requirement of being audited each year for which the Council is in violation for decades, an audit is the only means through which an evaluation of the effectiveness of Council’s internal controls can be made.
Maintaining an effective system of internal controls is vital for achieving the city’s business objectives, obtaining reliable financial reporting on its operations, preventing fraud and misappropriation of its assets, and minimizing its cost of capital. But apart from more revenue streams allowing for increased likelihood of graft, corruption and mismanagement at the Council, it is creating untold hardship and considerable strain on the citizens and businesses at a time when there is a massive slowdown in economic activity in the city.
The latest act of unrestrained greed is the implementation of a special tax on the collection and disposal of refuse from businesses. This is in addition to other penal initiatives such as the container tax, the across-the-board increase in property rates this year by a whopping 10%, hefty increase in market fees, new and increased fees for beauty salons and barber shops and the infamous parking meter project etc.
Could the Mayor and City Council say exactly in a detailed way what property rates are collected for? The demand notice I collect each year specifies the collection and disposal of solid waste as a line item under expenditure. But then again it is also supposed to be used for building roads and bridges, putting new street lights etc. which are never attended to. I predict that the Mayor and Councilors of the City of Georgetown shall be single handedly responsible for the downfall of the business sector in the capital which will be a tragedy
Debra Gibson

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