COI report recommends City Hall review tax collection methods

Dec 11, 2018 News

The Commision of Inquiry into the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown (M&CC) has recommended among other things, that the council review its tax collection method to garner monies to help offset expenses the council is currently facing.
In the report prepared by retired Justice Cecil Kennard, the City is encouraged to review tax collection methods such as the granting of amnesty to defaulting ratepayers.
In fact, the report said that granting of amnesty is one which opens the floodgates for corruption.
“This COI is of the view that little or nothing is being done to reduce the prevalence of defaulting ratepayers. It is my respectful opinion that the officers were not honest, they tried to cover up for each other, and this type of behaviour begs the question of what is happening. Is it incompetence? Is it corruption or is it a combination of both?” the Chairman stated in the report.
In addition to millions owed to several agences and individuals, the Mayor and City Council has racked up over $206M in debt to the National Insurance Scheme. During the hearings at the Commission of Inquiry, Louise Bryan, Debt Recovery Manager of the National Insurance Scheme, testified about the city’s indebtedness to the scheme.
Bryan told Justice Kennard that the outstanding payments span the period September 1994 to August 2018. “September, 1994? Am I hearing correctly?” was the Chairman’s response as Bryan read out the outstanding payment.
Bryan stated that partial payments were made for the periods May to November of 2009, September to November of 2016, February to May of 2017, April to December of 2017, March of 2018, April to June of 2018, and July to August of 2018. She said that though partial payments were made, the council racked up interest, which the city has not paid to the scheme.
The Debt Recovery Manager provided a series of documents tendered for the commission which, she explained, compromise a series of demand notices issued to the council throughout the periods of their non-payment, as well as letters from the scheme to the Local Government Commission.
The Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of the Mayor and City Council was to examine, advise and report on irregularities of the administration, its operations, and the managements of its financial affairs.

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