GCCI, new Mayor and councillors meet to discuss parking meter, other major issues

Feb 06, 2019 News

Members of the newly installed Georgetown Municipality, Mayor Ubraj Narine and a team from the council, officially met with members of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, (GCCI) on Tuesday to discuss several issues of concern to both the Council and business community.

From left: GCCI President Deodat Indar and Mayor Ubraj Narine following the discussions on Tuesday

In addition to Mayor Narine, those present at the meeting held that GCCI Waterloo Street Headquarters included Deputy Mayor Alfred Mentore, Attorney- at -Law, James Bond, GCCI President Deodat Indar, and Senior Vice President, Nicholas Deygoo-Boyer.
During the meeting, Mayor Narine expressed the need for establishing an institutional working relationship between the GCCI.
He said that the matter took precedence over the other issues.
According to him, this should be the first order of business as it would provide guidance on all other future engagements between the two bodies.
“We need to look at building a relationship before we move on to look at the other matters,” Narine told members of the business Chambers.
Among the matters placed on the GCCI agenda was the issue of the parking meter project, the placement of garbage receptacles around the city, and the levying of local authority taxes.
Several members of the chamber expressed their support for the notion put forward by the Mayor. However, the GCCI President was quick to point out that a similar initiative in the past to establish a committee with the private sector and the MCC had not materialized.
Towards the end of the meeting, representatives from both sides agreed to draft a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), and the setting up of a bilateral committee between the two entities.
Deygoo-Boyer suggested that the local government committee would deal specifically with matters of concerns to both the Council and GCCI. “We have areas of commonalities which can be used to build the bridge needed to address our differences,” he said
Representatives of the GCCI told the media too that the chamber has not changed its position on the parking meter project.
The Chamber said it believes that it is irresponsible for the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to continue with the metered system due to a lack of transparency during the implementation process, a lack of adherence to public procurement procedures, and the absence of feasibility studies and citizen consultations.
At the interim, the two bodies are expected to meet again on Friday to begin setting up the committee— a three-week timeline was given for the drafting of the MoU.

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