Dear Editor,
As a resident of Georgetown, a taxpayer and someone who loves cultural history, I would like to add my concern and consternation to the trepidation being expressed by the Local Government Ministry about the goings-on at City Hall regarding the serious and consistent attempts to dispose of municipal property in a most capricious manner. The strident denials by senior officials of the Georgetown Municipality ring hollow as first of all, they have not been accused of having already committed the unlawful disposal of the city’s assets but rather attempting to engage in the illegitimate disposal of the city’s assets, so for the municipal officials to ask the government to produce evidence of concluded transactions is just simply disingenuous.
But secondly and more importantly, with the Council’s history of flimflams, rackets and boondoggling, citizens would be hard pressed not to be concerned upon hearing of this latest hustle. Over the years it is well known that the Council disposed of innumerable garbage trucks, dump trucks, tractors, trailers, pick-ups, cars, SUVs and lots of other equipment which only needed a couple of parts, as obsolete and scrap vehicles at unbelievably low prices only to see those vehicles back on the roads a few days later being driven by their new private owners. This was not only advantageous to those who organized the sales but it also ensured that the Council became fully reliant on private contractors to provide most if not all municipal services.
But more recently, citizens were made aware of a legion of some fifty-five, yes a whopping fifty five leases and sales of municipal property and in some cases property that did not belong nor were they in the custody of the Georgetown Municipality, by a senior municipal officer at ‘next to nothing’ prices for prime locations that are worth millions of dollars including several riverside properties and reserves. How could one forget land located at Lot 1 Mudlot, Lombard Street, Georgetown that was leased to shipping company that was not owned by the Council, the sale of lands identified as Government reserve located along Aubrey Barker Road, North Ruimveldt to a mining and trucking company, the leasing of one third of the Farnum playground to a private educational institution and the attempt to convert the Bel Air Park playfield located along Eping Avenue into a space for residential use with plans to sell it to a private developer who would have then built luxury houses for senior members of City Hall.
The Council needs to be made to produce an accurate asset register, and the Ministry of Local Government should investigate how a footpath and municipal reserve that allowed persons to traverse between Jacaranda Avenue and Lama Avenue in Bel Air Park has suddenly become part of a person’s private property (backyard), how municipal reserves in Industrial Site, Ruimveldt have been transferred to private companies and how municipal property in Ruimveldt that used to be leased for a pepper corn rental is now part of the assets of a foreign company. Officials at City Hall cannot honestly say that active consideration was not being given to disposing of its assets including the prime waterfront property (the Constabulary Training Complex that 47 million dollars were spent rehabilitating it) and the old patched up abattoir.
Sincerely,
Debra Gibson
