City Council apologizes for delay in paying salaries

Oct 04, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
The Mayor and City Council has expressed regret that there has been an unfortunate payment delay of wages and salaries to some of its workers for the month of September, 2017. Many of the Council’s workers have already been paid. However, a sizeable portion has not been able to access their salaries. As a result, the council has asked those affected to do so on Wednesday, October 4, 2017.
It is public knowledge that at the Mayor and City Council expenditure continues to outstrip revenues. This is the case because the council has the ultimate responsibility to deliver a clean, green, safe and healthy city to all Guyanese. This requires adequate provision of vital municipal services to all local neighbourhoods including Solid Waste Management, Maternal Child and Welfare, Meat and Food Inspection, enforcement of compliance with the city by-laws, construction and maintenance of roads, maintenance of the city’s fragile drainage system, maintenance of the Abattoir, maintenance of five (5) Markets and a host of other services.
The Council continues to make the point that it is in a precarious financial position. This is facilitated by the fact that the city has not had valuation of properties for more than twenty (20) years, delays in the implementation of revenue earning projects, significant increases in goods and commodities used by the Council to provide services to local communities including fuel, steel, sand and stone, and labour, changing demography, and Climate Change and Global Warming and unprecedented environmental incidents and events. Increases and retroactive pay outs agreed to by the council and the unions for workers for the next three years are hinged on anticipated monies from new revenue streams, which as yet have not materialised.
Even in the face of this imbalance the council has been incrementally but noticeability improving the public and environmental health of the city. Alleyways drains and canals are cleared regularly, there is little overtopping when it rains (a refreshingly different situation to what obtained in the past) garbage collection and disposal are mostly on time, parapets, parks and open spaces are maintained, building inspectors, meat and food inspectors are keeping their schedules and an assortment of services delivered in maternal and child welfare section.
But this has led to a new reality; the council would need to revisit and review it staff and the way it organises its work to deliver services to communities. The Human Resource Department is in the process of doing that with a view to reduce the current payroll. At the moment the payroll stands at $110 million dollars per month while council collects between $78 million and $80 million on a monthly basis.
However, the Council continues to make strenuous efforts to increase its revenue base to carry out its statutory mandate. Citizens will recall that in 1994, a government appointed Interim Management Committee (IMC) headed by Dr. James Rose argued that the Council’s revenue base is too narrow to manage the plethora of services for which it has responsibility and demands of citizens. Since that time (1994) successive Councils have not been able to do much to improve the financial situation at the municipality; at council the negative financial situation remains unchanged.
The Council met with union representatives and some of its workers today and informed them of recent developments which are affecting its ability to pay them on time. Also, the council thanked all of its workers for their understanding and patience in this challenging time of the council. In the meantime, the council is urging all property-owners who have not settled their accounts with the City Treasury to treat their accounts as a matter of high priority.
Royston King
Municipal Clerk
Georgetown

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