Encounters on the first working day of 2020

Jan 04, 2020 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

As each year closes, it is customary for humans in all countries to say to themselves, and to others, that the new year should see greater efforts by all peoples around the world to make their individual countries, and the world, a more comfortable place. Guyana, of course, is no exception.

I got up early on the first official working day of 2020 to pay rates and taxes at City Hall. I took my dog with me and left her in the car in the compound. I could see her from the line. Right outside the City Constabulary office, squibs were going off. Dogs react terribly to the sounds of squibs. Squibs are banned items. City Hall has security officers that have authority to arrest persons lighting squibs.

My dog kept jumping towards the window looking for me, each time the stuff sounded off. I was a few yards away from the City Constabulary office. I went in. I pointed out to them that squibs were being fired off right outside the office. The lady said they would look into it. The City Constabulary never did.

Right outside the office of the city police, an illegal item was being used that affects the elderly folks (some of whom were in the line) and the animals, but the city ranks were not interested. I saw constabulary officials going up to drivers to instruct them not to let their cars rest on the yellow parking lines, but to stay within the perimeters of the slot earmarked for parking. Yet no rank was interested in squibs being fired off so early in the morning right next to their office.

Only one cashier was available for about 25 persons in the line. At about 8.45 a.m., another cashier came. Normally, three cashiers serve the public. The ironies of this country never fail to confuse its citizens. Revenue collection should be the number one priority of City Hall, which needs every cent it can get from ratepayers. Yet when ratepayers turn up to put money in City Hall’s coffers, there is only one cashier at the opening hour to collect the revenue that City Hall so desperately needs.

Now here is something that happened to me in 1985 at City Hall and the GRA – which then wasn’t named Guyana Revenue Authority. We are talking about 35 years ago. I returned to Guyana in 1984. The next year, my mother-in-law asked me to pay rates and taxes and then go to GRA to pay her taxes. Only one cashier was working at City Hall and the line had about forty people. This was a culture shock for me, because I had been out of Guyana for several years and could not have experienced firsthand this tremendous decline of my country.

I will never forget that day in 1985 at City Hall. I just looked around and said to the folks in the line; “look how many people are here to pay, aren’t they eager to collect the money?” At that time, you paid your national taxes at offices at the top of the post office building. I remember that day vividly. I was eating “guineps” and waiting in a long line. There was only one cashier.

Thirty-five years after, my country stands still. In 2020, I went to pay rates and taxes and there was only one cashier. Go to the GRA to pay for renewal of driver’s licence and you will see the line will be as long as what I saw 35 years ago.

There was this lady in the queue at City Hall next to me on Thursday. She indicated that she wanted to tell me a story. She gave her name as Sharon Evans. She asked for my help to publicise her plight.

She said she skidded on oil on her motorcycle on the Demerara Harbour Bridge on November 11 last year and sustained serious skin lacerations. She showed me on her smart phone the parts of her flesh on both legs that were exposed. She also said she was laid up from work for weeks after her release from hospital. She wanted the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC) to pay compensation. I told her that I knew the general manager, Mr. Adams.

I rang him. He said the lawyers for DHBC advised against paying compensation, because the oil could have come from a private vehicle and not through any operation from DHBC. Here is the interesting part. I asked if the cameras wouldn’t reveal where the oil came from. He said the Demerara Harbour Bridge only has monitoring cameras at its two extreme ends. Why not the entire bridge? Strange!

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)