GT Mayor claims government is sidelining council on city projects

Jan 10, 2021 News

Mayor of Georgetown, Ubraj Narine

Kaieteur News – The Mayor of Georgetown, Ubraj Narine, is claiming that the government is sidelining the Mayor and City Council on city projects.
During a press conference on Friday, the Mayor said that the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development has been displaying very shady behaviour because they are undertaking projects throughout the city, while failing to consult with the council.
He stressed that the Ministry has been showing no effort to engage in collaborative efforts with the council. “The Minister has to run that Ministry in a professional manner and stop playing politics with people’s lives and welfare and the development in this city. I am shocked to know that these things are happening in our country,” the Mayor said.
Narine revealed that as it relates to contracts and other pertinent information about city projects, the Ministry has been withholding them from the council. He stated that the council even wrote to the Permanent Secretary of the Local Government Ministry requesting copies of the documents for all the projects that they will be embarking on, but never received a response.
He further stated that when questioned, officers of the ministries told the council that they are not required to give them any documents.
During the conference, Narine showed documents of an old project conducted at the Bourda market, which was assisted by the previous administration. He stated that the reluctance to share information did not occur under that government.
He maintained the importance of the city council possessing all of the information on city projects because they must know what to report to their constituencies. “We are not against development. We want development, but let us do it in a way that all the parties are involved. We don’t want to do things in a way where we will get criticism. We want betterment for the people and that is what this City Council is working towards,” the Mayor also said.
It was disclosed that his recent statements came as a result of the Ministry’s failure to consult with the council on a project being done at the East Ruimveldt Market, even though the city council is responsible for the market.
This, he referred to as a “clear pattern” observed with the Ministry.
Narine also spoke about an upgrade being conducted at the Waterloo Street Avenue and the Carmichael Street Avenue, where he stated that a meeting was held and the city engineer was instructed to obtain documents for that project, but the city council was completely locked out of that one too.
He said that the council made several contributions to the project under the previous government and even came up with some of the ideas.

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