Dear Editor,
The reply of the M&CC to my letter on November 8 (‘The interest on rates and taxes owed to the city council is set in accordance with the Municipal District and Councils Act,’ SN 8.11.08) is interesting and free advertisement.
At 12.05 pm on November 11, I approached the counter at the M&CC office to have my rates and taxes verified. The lady at the counter said that all staff had been summoned to a meeting for the day and no one was available, so I would have to come back the next day.
When the M&CC is charging 21.75% interest on a daily basis − which is not punitive, mind you, but only “compensatory” − then they must appear to be super efficient in their dealings with ratepayers, for according to the Guyana Times we are the ones who are financing “possible major fraud, leakages in the financial system, poor management of finance, unaccountability of funds, incompetent management and a plethora of other ills.”
These accumulated financial woes are used to borrow money from the financial institutions at a high interest rate and the ratepayer must compensate the M&CC for the privilege of overseeing this financial disaster in keeping with the Municipal District and Councils Act Chapter 28:01. The entire operation of the council is governed by this act. I must peruse this important act to see who should be holding the big stick − the ratepayers voting out the incompetents every four years or the council continuing their merry ways indefinitely. Elections are way overdue.
Yours faithfully,
Hema Persaud
