The Story within the Story… A cesspool of corruption at City Hall

Nov 19, 2017 News

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By Leonard Gildarie

This past week, in Zimbabwe, an African state, conflicting reports indicated an army coup with the country’s leader, Robert Mugabe, placed under house arrest.

Coming to power in 1980, Mugabe consolidated power in an authoritarian rule that saw family members displaying evidence of wealth, while the country continued to reel from malnutrition and poverty.

The 93-year-old is refusing to step down despite thousands taking to the streets yesterday, popularly calling for his resignation. There were telling photos of Mugabe’s children and wife, Grace, flaunting their ill-gotten wealth, from Guccis, shoes, to Rolls Royces, Porsches, and Rolexes and US$400 bottle wines.

Mugabe is believed to have assets of £1bn.

What would lead a country to overwhelmingly reject its leader with the rest of the world nodding in approval at a coup?

As the world watches the unfolding situation in an African country that was once heralded as the front-runner in a continent that had wealth untold, in Guyana a similar situation is unfolding.

I am speaking, of course, of the situation at City Hall.

It is cash-strapped. It is unable to pay workers. It is now turning to amnesty on the interest of the rates and taxes for the city. However, all that for me would pale in comparison in what seems to be the tone at City Hall.

It does not bode well for the populace. There is a growing dictatorship there that has to be corrected… pronto.

We need to put things into perspective. Georgetown is no ordinary place.

It is the seat of Government and where a host of ministries and services are located.

On the fringes, at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, the CARICOM headquarters is located. We have our main hotels in the city proper.

Landing at the Timehri airport, more than likely, our visitors have to pass through Georgetown to get to their destination. Therefore, the management of the city has to be taken very seriously.

We have essential services like garbage and drainage, along with orderliness of the city streets, under the Council’s remit.

For years, because of corruption, a don’t care attitude and simple inefficiency have all contributed to a downward spiral.

We had a council under an aging mayor that was going nowhere as the country clamoured for local government elections.

I watched in approval in 2015 when the David Granger administration, on entering office, took it upon itself to start cleaning the city.

While it has not been sustained, there is an air about the city that things are happening. Several city roads have been rehabilitated. The Stabroek Market area looks more orderly and there is a marked improvement. However, the performance at City Hall, as managers, has remained unacceptable.

I watched in disbelief as we were asked to abide with parking meters being forced on us.

We all know now how that went.

There is no one in the country who would reject orderliness in the city streets. However, why are we being asked to pay a foreign company when the returns to the city are so little under the formula worked out?

The city is claiming that rates and taxes, including interest, amount to over $80B.

Why is there not a plan to collect? Is it because some of the businesses have friends at City Hall?

One would have thought that this council would have learnt from the parking meter fiasco, which this Government rightfully backed off from. But no, it seems the approach of riding blind into the windstorm is continuing.

This week, we learnt of a China trip where the council is claiming to have been uninformed.

I agree with the Mayor that she is not obligated to inform the council who she is taking.

That would be correct if the members of her delegation are not from the Council, and if the trip does not involve council business.

More so, it appears as if the Deputy Mayor was belatedly told of the trip.

We have something called accountability, and while it may not be spelt out under our archaic laws, its nuances are enough for conclusions to be made. We have to do much better in this age. Many of the folks at City Hall have been around for decades. The current mayor is a seasoned campaigner.

There is another major, shameful happening at City Hall that I believe has to be fully investigated by a council that seems to have no cojones.

It concerns the alleged sexual encounter between a city official and teen prisoner.

I am not sure which part of the ground we have our heads stuck in, but I have not seen the outrage on this. Imagine it is your son, or brother, that it happened to.

Someone saw the alleged incident and reports were made to the authorities.

That someone, City Hall’s prosecutor, was sent home for not entering the report in the records of City Hall. The alleged perpetrator too was sent home.

There is evidence that top leaders of City Hall were all told of the alleged incident.

The kicker is that the alleged perpetrator is said to have done something similar and was sent home, but brought back to work at City Hall by a senior official.

Two similar incidents and what appears to be a guardian angel at City Hall.

We sent home the whistleblower. That is how we protect our witnesses.

Kaieteur News has been receiving the complaints, and what is galling is the fact that in this day and age where information is easily “gettable,” there is still a belief that it could be covered up.

I want this city to shine. I want my Garden City. What we don’t want is a city that is steeped in corruption, where little deals are being worked out on reserve lands and contracts for garbage. The days of that are over.

 

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