Central government and the city council yesterday brokered a deal to end Georgetown’s garbage crisis, and contractors are expected to resume garbage collection tomorrow, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh said yesterday.
Singh said the administration has agreed to make an immediate release of $41M to the council and City
Hall is expected to augment the figure with an additional $5M to cover some two months of arrears to garbage contractors who had pulled their services three weeks ago. One month of arrears now remain outstanding.
The Finance Minister, who spoke after government met with mostly technical officers within City Hall, said the point was emphatically made that efforts must be intensified when collection resumes for a significant reduction in the garbage overflow. He explained this might require the use of existing resources within the council including lorries and trucks.
Coming out of the talks yesterday government intends to continue engaging City Hall on the issue, Singh said, but he pointed out any future discussions will address the issue of financial regulation at the council because of what the records currently show. Though they focused on the pressing issue of the garbage crisis, he said council’s financial situation came up, particularly its expenditure profile which was briefly examined.
Deputy Mayor Robert Williams was absent from the meeting though the President had indicated earlier he was invited, and when contacted yesterday he declined to comment on his non-appearance. However, President Bharrat Jagdeo had declared that Mayor Hamilton Greene was not invited to the meeting saying “He is from a different era and clearly I’m not working with him.”
According to the Finance Minister City Hall records reflect a shortfall in revenue collection due to its inability to collect rates and taxes from a large number of ratepayers. He deemed this a serious issue because the rates to go the bulk of services offered at City Hall. He said the records as publicly disclosed yesterday point to government being up-to-date with its payments, while there are many defaulters in the system. But there is also a serious problem of an imbalance in the council’s expenditure profile, Singh said.
He said what the records perused yesterday showed is that funds are spent at City Hall on activities which do not result in services which benefit citizens, noting that too much is spent on administration. Singh stated that City Hall’s expenditure needs to be examined and re-oriented. Further, he said the officials at the Ministry of Local Government plans to meet with officials from the council this week on a way forward for the council.
The garbage crisis began just about three weeks ago when garbage collectors withdrew their services after not receiving payment from City Hall; the outstanding sum had ballooned to $75M dollars. Since then garbage has piled up in the city, with much of it being dumped indiscriminately at street corners. In other instances, residents have paid to have it removed.
Meanwhile Opposition Leader, Robert Corbin referred to the President’s call for the establishment of an Interim Management Committee in Georgetown as a tactic to change the focus of the present political debate of the “criminality” of his administration. He called an IMC in Georgetown a non-issue, from his party’s perspective, saying the matter surfaced some years ago. According to him, Jagdeo was seeking then to exert political control of Georgetown to achieve political advantages ahead of local government elections.
“The PNCR expressed its total opposition to such an initiative and urged the completion of Local Government Reform and the early holding of Local Government Elections. It is therefore mind boggling that President Jagdeo, who recently attacked the Chairman of the Elections Commission for delaying the Local Government Poll, should now even be entertaining the thought of an IMC in Georgetown when he should be working to ensure the early holding of Local Government Elections,” Corbin wrote in a response last night.
He said the PNCR position and that of its leader are unambiguous, which is that local government elections under the reformed local government system is the priority. Corbin noted that his party would not, therefore, entertain any intermediate steps. Additionally, he said the problems being experienced by the City Hall are clear manifestations of the obsolete system of local democracy, which he said government seems reluctant to change. “In simple language neither the Leader of the Opposition nor the PNCR would agree to the establishment of any IMC in Georgetown,” he added.
