The current probe into the finances of the Georgetown City Council could uncover irregularities that could have “more far-reaching implications,” according to a source close to the municipality.
In an interview granted Stabroek Business on the condition of anonymity the source said that whatever the outcome of the probe it was important that it be concluded with a recommendation that financial administration within the Council be restructured “along more-business-oriented lines.”
The source cited what was described as “procedures associated with the allocation of contracts and the disbursement of payments to contractors” as “an area of great difficulty.” According to the source there are probably far too many occasions in which “clear cut and laid-down procedures” are set aside for the sake of expediency. “Once this keeps happening we are going to have accountability problems which is part of which the present audit is al about,” the source said.
Recently, the Georgetown City Council passed a motion leveling a slew of charges against the City Treasury and City Treasurer Roderick Edinboro, including charges of “a lack of proper accountability” and the making of an unauthorized payment to some members of staff of the municipality.
Earlier this week City Hall issued a statement indicating that Edinboro had been sent on leave based on a recommendation by the Auditor General to facilitate the probe which is being conducted by a team from the Auditor General’s Office. The source told Stabroek Business that “tone” of the release suggested that it may not have secured the blessings of “all of the players in the municipality” since it appeared designed to paint Edinboro in a negative light. Two weeks ago Town Clerk Beulah Williams distanced herself from a press release said to have been issued by the Office of Mayor Hamilton Green disclosing the Council’s decision to proceed with the audit.
According to the source while the City Treasurer and his Office were at the centre of the probe it is premature “to make any unfounded statement about the City Treasurer” based on the fact that he has been sent on leave. “I am sure that the City Treasurer may himself have interesting things to say about the probe that may be different from the things that are being said now,” the source said.
According to the source any investigation into the management of the financial affairs of City Hall would be incomplete unless the probe took account of the mechanisms for the administration of rates and taxes collection. The source argued that there was an absence of “an even-handed approach” to rates and taxes collection which had allowed some rate payers not to see theose payments as a priority. “One of the things that I am personally concerned about is the fact that there have been interventions by well-placed persons in matters of rates and taxes payments in circumstances where those persons really ought not to have made those interventions,” the source said.
Advocates of reform at City Hall have expressed the view that the management of the City’s finances should proceed along more business-oriented lines and should be responsive to the particular needs of the city rather than to subjective decisions made by bureaucrats within the municipality. The source told Stabroek Business that while this recommendation was “much more complex to implement than would appear to be the case” there was merit in the view that the management of the city’s finances could benefit from “the kinds of checks and balances that were more prevalent in business organizations.”
According to the source the financial probe was “inevitable” given the accusations of a lack of accountability that had been leveled against the municipality from various quarters, including the Government of Guyana. “Both the non-payment of large sums of rates and taxes by various individuals and institutions, including the GWI and the way in which the government treats with the Council are functions of how the Council, through its own weaknesses, has allowed itself to be seen,” the source added.
