Mayor Green offers ‘no comment’

Actions taken by the Local Government Commission (LGC) to launch a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the spending and other operations at City Hall has left quite a stir, as officials of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) are retreating from sharing their observations.
The Inquiry was requested along with the fact that Town Clerk Royston King be sent on administrative leave, which will take effect from September 21.
“I have no comments,” were the words of Mayor Chase Green as she remained tight-lipped when confronted by sections of the media for a comment at Monday’s statutory meeting.
The Town Clerk also displayed similar sentiments, as he also refused to comment on the matter.

This move comes just two months ahead of Local Government Elections where a new executive body will be elected to oversee the activities at the Council.
However, it was claimed that this was necessary since numerous complaints were made by staffers of the Council and other agencies, regarding the expenditure and decisions which were taken by the Council.
During the meeting, Mayor Chase Green read an excerpt from the letter that was issued by the LGC which stated that the organisation “took a decision to carry out an investigation based on multiple complaints and adverse reports received from workers of the municipality and a number of agencies with respect to the administration of the municipality of Georgetown.”
Headed by Justice Cecil Kennard, the public hearings will commence on September 24 and are expected to conclude on October 31. The necessary actions will be taken by the Commission after conclusions are drawn from the Inquiry.
Over the years, City Hall has complained over lack of funds which is a mere contradiction to its excessive spending. Concerns were raised over this issue, noting that while the building is in need of repairs, millions of dollars have been squandered excessively.
This year, G$57 million was allocated to the Council by Central Government to facilitate community projects. Additionally, some G$58 million was used to buy furniture for the office of the Town Clerk and other large sums were set aside to purchase vehicles and machinery for the said office.
King’s office was also given G$4 million for overseas trips and G$550,000 for local travel expenses; all approved by the Council. Electricity charges also spiked this year from G$5 million to G$9 million.
The excessive spending continues with another G$17 million which was allocated to the Council’s ‘City Week’ celebration a few weeks ago. This even comes in light of the fact the funds are desperately needed to restore City Hall’s building since sections of the structure have been deemed as “unsafe” with many anticipations that the historical structure is soon to crumble if it is not restored.
Despite these large sums, King mentioned in April that the Council is running on a shoestring budget, calling for staffing restructure. At that time, the average monthly revenue of City Hall was between G$78 and 80 million, while its monthly wage bill was G$112 million.