It is time the nation outlaw the City Council of Georgetown

Jan 29, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – I don’t know if it is true but a Regent Street businessman told me that the City Council has a new requirement for securing compliance. When you are selling a property, City Council has to give you a compliance certificate, meaning that you have cleared your rates and taxes. I was told City Hall is now demanding zero point five percent of the valuation price of the property.
I cannot see how this nation could accept that. I cannot see how the business community can accept that. I cannot believe that is real. It cannot be real so I will move on with my intended analysis of the wasteland that the Georgetown City Council is. No matter which ethnicity you belong to in Guyana, no matter which political party you subscribe to, it must appeal to your conscience that this entity is one of the most dysfunctional governmental units in the world.
It is not for the lay person to do the research. It is left to the central government to undertake the research in its effort to remove the City Council and replace it with an innovative institution after widespread consultation. Here is what the research is about. Go back to the council’s minutes 35 years ago. Go back to all the newspapers 35 years ago. There is one recurring theme – City Council’s income does not allow it to function properly.
That was 35 years ago. That was 1985. From the time President Hoyte opened up the economy in the 1988 budget, the face of Georgetown in 2020 which is from Agricola to Plaisance bears no resemblance to Georgetown in 1985. This country bears little in physical appearance to Guyana in 1985. Every conceivable urban ward is a new world from the appearance we know them to have in 1985.
Take Charlestown in 1985 as a low income ward with low income earners. Go and see Charlestown today, especially Broad Street. If the City Council in 1985 was collecting rates and taxes from one million properties, in 2020 that number is now 10 million. The physical landscape of Georgetown is a brand new world compared to 1985. Let’s put it another way; if the City Council was collecting one billion dollars in income from the city in 1985, given the profound change in the landscape that number should be 100 billion.
It is staggering and a sight to behold when you see how Georgetown has changed the past 35 years. I am not talking about breath-taking structures that have gone up in inner Georgetown – Stabroek, Bourda, Cummingsburg, Kingston, Lacytown and Brickdam. Go to all the streets in Alberttown, Queenstown, Kitty, Campbellville, Newtown, Subryanville, Bel Air, Charlestown, South Ruimveldt, Meadow Bank, Meadow Brook, Lodge, Wortmanville, Roxanne Burnham Gardens, Prashad Nagar, Lamaha Gardens, Liliendaal, Turkeyen, Industry, Ogle, Courida Park, etc., and see the massive structures that have gone up. The adjective massive is simply an understatement.
It is literally impossible for the City Council not to be awash with hundreds of billions of dollars. Just take every four level building that has gone up throughout the physical jurisdiction of the City Council, there are hundreds and hundreds of them. Some humongous buildings have been constructed in Georgetown during the past 20 years that are a windfall for the City Council.
How did I arrive at 100 billion? It is easy to calculate City Hall’s income when you take what the average ratepayer contributes to City Hall’s coffers and juxtapose that figure with the thousands of new buildings the past 20 years. This figure can be arrived at not only through the use of a calculator but with the naked eyes. Just drive around the other wards I mentioned above like Kitty, Campbellville, Subryanville, Industry and Ogle, and you will see that given that reality, City Hall is earning billions monthly and hiding it or stealing it, or only low income people pay their rates and taxes.
Something is not right here. Something is dead wrong here. How with this physical transformation of Georgetown that is prodigious, City Hall can still complain about not having sufficient funds to carry out its basic functions? This mystery needs explaining. Perhaps more than explaining, it needs to be probed with forensic thoroughness.
Central government should suspend the City Council, install an interim management committee representing a cross section of the society and examine the amount of rates and taxes City Hall collects from all properties under its jurisdiction. I end with a bold assertion and I will like to see the statistical argument against my contention – given the countless buildings in Georgetown, City Hall has to be overflowing with money.

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