“This injection of political consideration in the administration of the City Council, especially in the collection of rates and taxes, is a significant contributory factor to the decline and decay of the City,” the ministry stated in a news release.
However, Mayor Green in a subsequent statement said that the government “must be aware of ongoing efforts between the PNC and the Mayor and City Council to reconcile the amount owed by the PNC to the City to facilitate payment.”
Mayor Green explained that this need arose from queries made about the rates applied in computing the taxes owed. Consequently, he added, it was necessary for a determination of the relevant rate, be it commercial, residential or institutional, to be applied to the various holdings of the PNC.
And according to the mayor, the Chief Valuation Officer has recently advised on a possible course of action. However, Green did not disclose what course of action had been recommended.
The local government ministry said that according to the records, City Hall has not collected rates and taxes for the PNCR’s headquarters at Sophia for over a decade.
Moreover, the ministry noted, the PNCR has several other properties in the city for which no rates and taxes have been collected for more than fifteen years, and the partial records available to the ministry show outstanding amounts totaling some $100M.
The ministry further charged that the main opposition party “has so far shown an unwillingness to meet its obligation in spite of the amnesty being granted on interest on debts owed to the council.”
But Green has noted that the city administration has over the past months employed many strategies, including the waiver of interest to collect outstanding rates and taxes from “all defaulting property owners.”
And he dismissed as a “false claim” the ministry’s statement that the mayor has made no effort to collect taxes from the PNCR.
The local government ministry has also contended that now that Green has been embraced once again by the PNCR and sits on the party’s executive committee, “the non-collection of the rates and taxes must be seen as a conflict of interest on his part.”
The ministry said further that it has repeatedly made representation to Central Government for assistance to the city and recently it had lobbied for rates and taxes to be paid in advance.
However, “given the glaring exhibition of political bias in the collection of rates and taxes,” the ministry warned that it “will not be involved in making any representation for assistance until the City collects rates and taxes owed by the PNCR.”
Meanwhile, Green in his release said that the statement from government linking the alleged non-payment of taxes by the PNCR to their cooperation with the City Council is a continuation of their unkind treatment to City Hall over the years.
According to the mayor, there are also other related issues. He contended that “it is crystal clear that the government will stop at nothing short of total control of the capital.”
He added that “all we ever asked for was justness and fairness in our relationship with the government, but obviously this is not on the government’s agenda.”
