Mayor accuses Local Govt. Commission of interfering with work of City Council

Jul 11, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Georgetown Mayor, Ubraj Narine is once again accusing the Local Government Commission (LGC) of hampering the work of the Georgetown municipality.

City Mayor, Ubraj Narine.

In a statement issued to the press last Thursday, the Mayor outlined a number of issues in which the LGC continues to act beyond its ambit and disrupt the work of the municipality. According to the Mayor, the municipality exercises its statutory responsibility to the citizens of Georgetown and has in its full legal authority vested in the law Ch 28:01 empowering the Council to make decisions, which are to be executed by the Town Clerk.

However, he said the Local Government Commission continues to selectively interfere in the matters of the Council against the interest of the citizens of Georgetown. “The citizens of Georgetown are now faced with another disruption as the Commission meddles in the day to day administration of the Municipality far beyond its scope which places all contractual services in jeopardy. The disruptions will affect services such as garbage collection, maintenance (cleaning and clearing of parapets and canals) and public information and awareness,” Narine revealed in his statement.

He accused the LGC of also reaching outside of its powers and supervising the work of the Town Clerk (ag) Candace Nelson. He explained that, “The Town Clerk has seemingly come under the direct supervision and instruction of the Commission executing the dictates of the Commission.

This will no doubt result in an impasse and will be vehemently rejected with strong opposition exercising all legal and legitimate methods.”

Added to this, the Mayor said the Commission is notably silent on the city’s loss of confidence in the City Engineer, a matter which was recently raised by residents of South Ruimveldt during the Government’s outreach on the heels of the visit by President Irfaan Ali. Unfortunately, the Mayor said the matter appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

The City Mayor had previously expressed frustration with what he said is a lack of interest by the LGC on matters of importance to the Council. Mayor Narine noted that he raised the recent recommendation of the Council to terminate the services of the City Engineer Colvern Venture as one which the LGC has failed to act on.

In this regard, Narine indicated that the LGC’s sloth in dealing with the issue has placed the entire City of Georgetown in jeopardy. He noted that as the transformation of Georgetown continues, massive construction and renovation projects are being executed and can be impacted by the failure to address the problem with the engineer.

Mayor Narine alluded to one current project which has received funding from the Government of Guyana – the construction of the administrative building for the Municipality— and is likely to fail to reach its deadline.

According to Narine, the Council has never received the contract or specifications from the City Engineer. Additionally, he said whatever information was provided in a piecemeal fashion and was incorrect or filled with inaccuracies.

The Mayor has stated that the LGC continues to allow the officer to operate without concern for the safety of staff of the Municipality or the citizens of Georgetown who will be affected should there be a fire. As such, Narine also called on the LGC to address the motion of the Council to terminate the services of the City Engineer with urgency. The Council has expressed no confidence in the City Engineer and has written to the LGC recommending that he be terminated.