Minister failed to engage city council on use of $500M ‘clean up…’ campaign money

Dear Editor,

The Mayor and City Council is surprised and amused by statements attributed to Mr Norman Whittaker, the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development that he had failed to put enough pressure on the city council to deal adequately with the maintenance of flood prevention mechanisms before the rains.

Yet, the council is aware of a not so subtle motive behind those statements. The council is of the view that such statements are designed to make it look ineffective and incompetent. However, council knows that citizens are fully aware of the reality at the Georgetown municipality.

Citizens will recall that, notwithstanding our appeals, the Minister failed to engage or even casually consult with the Mayor and Councillors, the people’s representatives, on the use and management of $500 million for the ‘Clean up my country’ activity. Council continues to be inundated by complaints about the poor quality of work in local neighbourhoods. The council is unable to assist with this negative situation because it lacks the resources.

Citizens will recall our public reports that, Ms Carol Sooba, who was appointed by the Minister to act as Town Clerk, has not been carrying out the instructions of the council. She has not been implementing the decisions of the elected council. One area in which this is amply demonstrated is in Solid Waste Manage-ment. Ms Sooba, without the knowledge or fiat of council, terminated the services of Cevons Waste Management. This has put an extra burden on the extremely limited capacity of the council to collect and dispose of the ever increasing amount of garbage in Georgetown. The result of this unilateral decision by Ms Sooba, is the unsanitary condition around our markets and in other sections of the capital.

Also, citizens will recall council’s actions to report to the police and the public the unauthorized spending of council’s money by Ms Sooba. Those reports have not borne any result. However, this has taken away the control of the city finances from the Mayor and City Council as a body. Further, it has facilitated spending in non-priority areas, including the purchase of a luxury sofa for Ms Sooba.

Meanwhile, the council did not purchase one tonne of stone to carry out urgent repairs to roads nor has it really properly desilted main canals in the city. All departments of the council are functioning without basic things, and in very harsh work conditions – broken furniture, poor sanitary facilities, lack of stationery.

All of council’s buildings are allowed to deteriorate. Buildings are symbols of the surface culture of an organization. Anyone can guess the new culture of the council by looking at the City Hall building.

Finally, citizens will recall our attempt to implement revenue projects to do works in the city; all were denied: the lotto, container tax, Stabroek Market wharf, paid parking, and the proposal to charge GPL Inc a small fee for using our parapets to do their installations. Also, the council does not receive any money from the environmental tax imposed by the government.

This action to deny council the right to raise its own revenue is affecting the human, technological and other capacities of the council to fulfil the expectations of its citizens. It is preventing the council from going forward in very vital areas to provide core services to the city.

The council is asking all citizens to pay attention to what is happening to their city; to observe the authority of the council is being undermined; to see how the government has been denying the council even the basic permission to generate revenue; to be informed; and to be empowered to take actions to preserve and protect the health of their communities and to work with the council to restore and develop Georgetown.

 

Yours faithfully,

Royston King

Mayor and City Council

City of Georgetown