Are we better off now than when the new City Hall leadership took charge?
Dear Editor,
A good predictor of the next nine months at City Hall under its current leadership is the last nine months. Citizens and councillors in looking at the period must ask themselves one question: Are we better off now than when the new leadership took charge?
As we close the calendar year we owe hundreds of millions to contractors and other service providers, and this does not include the $1.8 billion owed GPL. Our accounting system leaves much to be desired; it took the Auditor General to tell us that scarcely a dollar of $300 million given by central government for the Georgetown Restoration Programme can be properly accounted for. The government recently turned down a request for a $600 million bailout of the city, including $200 million to fund a cleanup of the capital for Prince Harry’s visit. Last month is perhaps the second month in the last nine in which workers were paid on time. We are in a crisis with no end in sight under the current leadership. Are we better off today than when we started?
Look back to our crude eviction of the vendors and minibuses from the Stabroek Market Square. Because of a lack of clear vision the buses have returned and we still hunt for a permanent home for our vendors. When central government looked at our actions they begged us to be “sensitive” to the plight of the vendors. However, we did not learn from this experience, as we went on to dislocate vendors from Robb and Bourda Streets, a move our Head of State David Granger weighed in on, and described as “reckless”.
We’ve implemented a container fee for which we are yet to pass a bylaw to give it legitimacy, yet are taking a rough hand to block businesses that fo not comply with payment. With government intervention we were led away from the courts and into the Tripartite Committee, while we’ve stopped turning up to engage the private sector.
The parking meter contract is now legendary, with government intervention. President Granger characterized its original cost to consumers as “burdensome”, the Ministry of