Dear Editor,
The Guyana Chronicle editorial of March 30 dealt with alleged corruption in the City Engineer’s Department. It is an instructive article; the public should know that over the years the Mayor and Councillors have been trying to take a firm hand on this key department, among others. We’ve had the Liburd, Lynch and S V Jones, among other reports, which made several recommendations. As the editorial points out, only when the Burrowes report again exposed glaring improprieties at the Georgetown municipality, did we, after some effort, see the dismissal of two officers.
We recall that when the government sought to find an explanation for the massive flood in 2005, the engineer was dismissed at the instance of the Minister – mind you, the Mayor had been making complaints before ad nauseam.
Recently an enquiry was started which seemed to implicate senior officers, but the then minister, Kellawan Lall aborted the enquiry; to date no reason has been given. This is the short version of a very long story.
One answer is to have a Local Government Commission put in place, or transfer those powers held by the Minister, to the Mayor.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
Mayor
