With a possible contractual showdown looming over parking meters, questions will continue to rise over who advised the city on the deal with Smart City Solutions (SCS) that could leave the municipality with huge financial exposure.
Mayor Patricia Chase-Green and Town Clerk Royston King have both told Stabroek News that at the time of negotiation of the controversial contract, the city had legal representation. They have however refused to identify the legal representative
“Both sides [City Hall and SCS] had representation,” Chase-Green has repeatedly said but when asked to identify City Hall’s legal representative, Chase-Green told Stabroek News at a press conference held at National Communication Network (NCN) several weeks ago that she had “not sought leave from the person to identify their firm so won’t do so now.” The Mayor has provided that same explanation for why the city will not identify the accounting firm which advised on the amendments to the original contract.
Several weeks later the Mayor and Town Clerk still refuses to identify, the legal mind which advised them to sign a 49-year contract which the Attorney General’s office has described as “one of unequal bargaining strength” with terms overwhelmingly in favour of SCS and a clause meant to place the city in terror of terminating same.
“The financial regime of fees and fines to the account of the Concessionaire seem to be so onerous on the City and thus the citizens, that a Caveat is provided that these figures could be reduced by agreement between the Parties,” the AG’s review notes.
These comments related to the original contract, which proposed that $125 be charged per 15-minute parking rotation. That sum has since been reduced to $50 plus VAT and further lowered for long-term parking. Analysts say this demonstrates that a much better deal could have been gotten from the inception.
Other questions which remain unanswered are when exactly did negotiations between SCS and City Hall occur?
City Hall has maintained over the last year that a contract held by Ifa Kamau Cush’s National Parking Systems (NPS) was amended to include SCS after Cush approached an international consortium for technical support.
Amir Oren, SCS Director of Business Management has claimed that SCS was recommended to Cush when he approached parking meter manufacturing company Parkeon.
However questions directed to Oren, Cush, Chase-Green and King have gone unanswered.
Each party has said only that these meetings occurred early in 2016 with Oren narrowing the date to the first quarter of that year.
Other questions about the partnership between NPS and SCS remain unanswered. NPS is not mentioned in any of the contract documents. The May 13, 2016 and September 16, 2016 metered parking contracts mention only SCS as a “company registered in Guyana”.
Notably, SCS was registered on May 6, 2016, one week before it signed the contract with the city on May 13, 2016. Further while Mayor Chase-Green and Head of the Finance Committee Oscar Clarke assured the public that they had conducted due diligence on SCS before signing the contract a letter from Parkeon released to the public shows that it was not until June 27, 2016 that the company provided references for the SCS.
