Amid growing questions about the selection of National Parking Systems (NPS)/Smart City Solutions for a city parking meters project, Deputy Mayor of Georgetown Sherod Duncan yesterday said he could not support the deal, citing, among other things, doubts about the background and capacity of the firms to undertake the venture.
Sharing his thoughts on the deal publicly for the first time in a post on his Facebook page, Duncan wrote that given the “total lack of verifiable information on the company and its capacity to execute the scope of the project and the absence of a contract on the proposed project, I cannot offer my support and reaffirm my grave reservation of such a venture.”
The Deputy Mayor said that the companies provided “so little information” from which “to make a quality judgment and offer my possible support to the project” that he had to resort to the internet to see if he could turn up any data. He highlighted that he could find little.
“In the roll out (of) the parking meters project, National Parking Systems (NPS) has touted Smart City Solutions years of experience in the area of the subject matter. In my research I have not found any company by the name ‘Smart City Solutions’ associated with parking meter systems, in any of the places the company is purporting to have done business like Panama,” Duncan wrote.
“Additionally, in my independent research on Simon Moshevilli who represents Smart City Solutions I have found no one with said name connected with said company. Additionally, there is no evidence that such a company actually exists,” he charged.
Internet searches by Stabroek News also did not turn up any information on Smart City Solutions and while NPS has a website, it is rudimentary and the company does not appear to have undertaken any major projects. The website mentions that Georgetown has contracted NPS to own and operate an on-street parking project. According to the website, revenues for the city will increase by over 200% “within the first year of operations” of the on-street parking project.
“It is my firm belief that the architecture of a traffic and mobility management policy must be the construct of several stakeholders, and the culmination of signing such a contract should have had due diligence done,” Duncan said.
His statements are the latest sign of the unease shared by some about the project which has not been helped by the conflicting signals emanating from City Hall.
On Thursday, City Hall announced that Astrolobe Technologies, which had said that they had a deal with the city since 2007, will not be considered for the parking meters project as it “lacks both the human and technological competencies to install and manage parking meters in the city of Georgetown.”
The decision came after the city had previously announced that the capital would be divided into two and Astrolobe would install parking meters in one part and Smart City Solutions Inc in the other section.
That statement appeared not to have any basis as the city subsequently said that “not only will Astrolobe prove to be a risk to the City’s economic and financial stability, but because it appears that Astrolobe will, at best, be experimenting with public parking, the safety of citizens could be compromised.”
According to City Hall, it is aware that Smart City Solutions Inc is the largest operator of municipal on-street metered parking in Latin America, the Caribbean and South America. It added that the company has supplied Panama with parking meters, equipment and accessories for over two decades, while also pioneering the service in Mexico City, where it has been in operation for over five years, managing some 20,000 parking spaces.
However, Duncan pointed out that from his research, it was only in 2012 that Panama begun transitioning from a manual to a computerised system parking meter system, since collecting monies from the municipal parking meters were proving more and more difficult. He noted that by 2015, the mayoralty began tendering for parking meters
Further, checks by Stabroek News indicate that in was also only in 2012 that Mexico City began implementing metered parking. Prior to 2012, on-street parking in Mexico City was either free or informally controlled by franeleros, or unregulated valet attendants.
In April 2012, Mexico City’s Polanco district, an upmarket residential neighbourhood, completed implementation of a new parking management system, introducing 426 multispace meters to streets where parking had previously been free. News on the parking meters was reported by several news organisations including the Associated Press and Reuters.
Mexico City’s parking meter system was branded EcoParq and a company called Operadora de Estacionamientos Bicentenario was granted an exclusive licence running ten years for the first zones where the meters were implemented. In moving to metered parking, Mexico City was advised by the US-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, which works around the world to design and implement high quality transport systems and policy solutions.
Meantime, there are also further questions about why the city never invited tenders for the parking meters project but Georgetown Mayor Patricia Chase-Green last week told Stabroek News that the city council never invited bids since they are not investing any of the city’s finances. “The reason it did not go to tender is because we are not spending money on it,” she said. According to her, “the city council is not spending a dime and at the end of the day they would be receiving 20% of the gross.”
The mayor also said that during discussions, a team from the city council had visited Miami to get a firsthand look of the parking meters and its operation. She did not say in what year or which company took them to Miami. According to Chase-Green, the parking meters could have already been rolled out and City Hall could have been raking in profits but the previous administration blocked the installation.
Questioned if the council had any input on the price for parking, she said that the company would make recommendations and they would engage in negotiations on the fees. She said that the City Engineers department would be fully involved in the mapping of the parking meters on the streets that are owned by the city council and those that fall under the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.
