The city council is reckless with its money

Feb 05, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
By now it must be pellucid to the youngest child why the City Council is always broke, and in fact totally bankrupt, and that is because of the reckless behaviour and irresponsible actions of the administrative leadership at City Hall.
How could the Town Clerk explain maintaining a staff strength of nearly 1000 employees with a monthly payroll of $130 million, whilst contracting out almost all of its services from refuse collection to brush cutting for hundreds of millions of dollars. This is just not sustainable and benefits only the senior administrators at Council.
But quite disconcerting is the propensity of the administration of the City Council to boast and pat itself on the back when it finally does something that it should have been doing all along. Examples of this would be the debushing of Le Repentir Cemetery and the repair of the Kitty Market where they criticize the previous central government for not maintaining these facilities.
New Flash these facilities belong to the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown and therefore it is the duty and responsibility of the City Council to maintain them as was done in years gone by. But this current Council has become so accustomed to bailouts from Central Government that it thinks it is an obligation. It is not.
Quite dishonestly it continuously announces that property rates have not been increased for more than twenty years. Just two years ago property rates were increased by a whopping 10%. For such treachery the senior administrator of Council should be sanctioned.
But very alarming is the cavalier approach the administration has taken to its indebtedness to the Guyana Revenue Authority, the National Insurance Scheme and the utility companies stating that it is not the only entity that has outstanding payment to entities. These entities should take the council to court to receive their monies.
It is illegal and it is not that the Council does not have the money, it is that it spends it recklessly on foreign travel and contractors who do not have to subscribe to tender board procedures.
And about the holding of Mayoral elections until March 15, I must say that I smell a rat. Why did all the other municipalities except Georgetown have theirs in December? Why did the Georgetown Municipality have theirs the last time in December? I believe that there is some jiggery pokery afoot.
Bearing in mind that the next Mayor would only have at best a term of nine months, it would make perfect sense for that individual to know three months in advance that he has been elected so that the team could plan its programmes and policies.
Benjamin Franklin once said: Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.
Sincerely
Shanta Singh

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