The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has big plans for the $300 million that has been budgeted for the Georgetown Restora-tion Programme.
These plans include training for key departments at City Hall, a massive public awareness and education campaign and vital refurbishing of city infrastructure.
Town Clerk Royston King told Stabroek News yesterday that the intention is to bring the city to a level compatible with cities in the Caribbean and the rest of the world.
In his budget presentation on Monday, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan told the house “our capital, Georgetown, was once recognised as the Garden City. As proud Guyanese, we need to restore Georgetown to its pristine state. To assist in the resuscitation of our capital city, we have allocated $300 million for the Georgetown Restoration Programme, encompassing an intense cleanup campaign, while enforcing laws on littering.” Jordan added that the city will be “reclaimed.”
The municipality, according to King, is “grateful to government for its support” and intends to use the monies allocated to begin major projects in vital areas. “It will at the very least give us a start,” he stressed.
He further added that “this intervention” will allow the council to enhance its general and specific operations at three levels.
The first of these levels is institutional strengthening and capacity building. This will address training at all levels, including at the level of the City Constabulary, which will be strengthened in its ability to enforce compliance with the city bylaws, including littering laws and respect for building codes.
“There is a high level of architectural indiscipline in the city and we need to put an end to that if we intend to be on the way to returning Georgetown to its pristine state and advance its interest,” King said.
The staff of the Treasury Department is expected to be the recipients of special training in the area of corporate governance.
According to King, “Corporate governance will allow [the municipality] to enhance accountability, transparency and in that way to engender more public confidence and trust” and, therefore, collect more taxes.
A simultaneous strengthening of the debt collection unit, King hopes, will bring in monies owed so that more services can be provided to citizens.
Second, a massive public awareness and education campaign is expected to utilise print and electronic media. This campaign is necessary, according to King, for behavioural change, which is essential for long term change.
The restoration programme will also encompass the refurbishing of vital city infrastructure. “We need to refurbish our cemeteries and markets, particularly the Bourda Market, which has suffered from major leakage, Stabroek Market, East La Penitence, [and the] East Ruimveldt market. We are looking at reconfiguring the markets to make them compatible with modern times and even compete with supermarkets and the new trend of business that we see developing in Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean,” King explained.
A second aspect of this plan will see a massive drainage exercise.
King explained that the municipality will be performing desilting works on all canals. While the central government through the Ministry of Infrastructure has undertaken to clear the 11 main outfalls, the council will be clearing all the main and feeder canals which lead to these outfalls.
“We are looking at a green city, where we are going to be looking to plant trees, in all areas of the city. We are reclaiming parapets, we are reclaiming our alleyways and we are reclaiming our thoroughfares throughout the city. We are preserving certain green spaces, refurbishing our playgrounds and our recreational facilities for our young people for sports and other forms of recreation,” he promises.
This ambitious plan has already begun with M&CC taking action against several businessmen who have erected buildings in violation of the city building codes.
