Bail out for City Hall again

Dear Editor,

I do have mixed emotions about President Bharrat Jagdeo’s prudent intervention in the financial bailout of the Georgetown City Council, to relieve the Council of its ongoing financial woes. The move was necessary. The Georgetown City Council was in dire straits – it had to attend to outstanding liabilities, including wages owed to staff, and amounts due for several months, to garbage collectors. So when President Jagdeo (accompanied by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, Public Works Minister Robeson Benn, and Local Government Minister Norman Whittaker), met with a delegation of senior officers from the municipality, and completed the “act of deliverance,” it was most commendable. Something had to be done, and it was done. However, I ask that readers consider and compute the following.

According to the president, the government will immediately be paying some Gy$80 million in rates and taxes to the council. In addition, government will be injecting a further Gy$120 million, into the municipality to help meet its outstanding liabilities, and to accelerate its efforts, to keep the city clean. This is indeed a massive input. But it gets even more massive. There is an additional Gy$15 million from Central Government to the City Council, earmarked for the purposes of cleaning up the Le Repentir Cemetery.

The end result is that these payments amount to government’s injecting a total of Gy$215 million into the city, and with immediate effect. When I consider the fact that the president also indicated that the Central Government has been using their money (they are currently spending in excess of Gy$450 million to rehabilitate various roads and streets within the city), I feel quite ambivalent about the whole thing. Yes, the move was most vital, but there remain a few questions.

First, for the city officials, attending the meeting, there must be responsibility, in the area of financial management.

They must learn to control and prioritise finances. Yes, I agree with the City Hall representatives (namely Deputy Mayor Robert Williams, the Town Clerk, and Treasurer), that debt clearance and workers’ remuneration remain hurdles.

However, the recurring pattern seems too entrenched, and not only this, it seems destined to get even worse.

So it is the trend that is bothersome.

I am sure that if President Jagdeo were to make some kind of dictatorial change in personnel and strategies, some might become incensed.

Currently, the job is being ill done, and “… a job ill done is a job twice done…” Then add to this the waste of money, the idling of time, and the parading of misfits, and what one gets is a pot pouri of confusion.

In closing, these are my suggestions. The Georgetown City Council and its entire fraternity must be routinely scrutinised.

Also, there is need to engage other sources of help. One can think of enforcing the laws (the laws are there already), so that vendors are held in strict accountability in the area of sanitation and aesthetics.

All complain about Georgetown being in shambles, but no one gets up and gives a helping hand. I am sure that a “togetherness” can make it work.

Yours truly,

Ryhen King