Town Clerk Beulah Williams on Wednesday met with senior officers to discuss issues affecting the administration’s performance and some of its plans to ensure that public health standards are maintained during the Cricket World Cup (CWC).
A press release from the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) said Williams’s agenda included improving the council’s capacity to generate revenue, monitoring and evaluating municipal projects and programmes, the allocation of resources to different departments, preparation for the CWC and the council’s relationship with the Guyana Power and Light. Williams said this year the council has implemented new strategies to recover outstanding sums from defaulters; this includes publishing their names and initiating legal proceedings.
As regard the CWC Williams requested that the acting medical health officer submit to the council projects and programmes to ensure public health standards in restaurants, hotels and other businesses. In keeping with this the M&CC plans to begin an intense education programme about good health practices in schools to raise public awareness. The administration is also considering merging the Food Hygiene and Environmental Health Sections in order to offer a more qualitative health package to citizens. The M&CC also plans to intensify its drainage programme in the main commercial areas and has identified Stabroek as an area which needs immediate attention. The council will also repair municipal builds and other facilities including roads and bridges.
Williams said one of the major challenges for the CWC preparation is community participation. The M&CC acknowledges that it cannot “do all the things necessary to effect the quality of change in the general condition of the City” but it intends to initiate ways to encourage citizens to take responsibility for the state of their communities.
