Steps are being taken to address the city’s financial woes particularly as it relates to money owed to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) and city workers but if all fails, there is prayer, Georgetown Mayor, Hamilton Green said yesterday.
Green met with Minister of Local Government, Kellawan Lall yesterday and at a press conference at City Hall afterwards he said they agreed to have another meeting which will be moderated by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who holds the electricity portfolio. The mayor said that the municipality’s average electricity costs amount to over $13M per month, the majority of which is street lighting which costs $9.2M monthly. “So you see it’s a large portion and because we have had other problems it is clear that the city is under siege,” Green said.
The mayor said at the meeting with Hinds, he will raise an eight year old business proposal which envisions GPL paying a token to the city council for each electricity pole planted on the city’s parapet. “That proposal has still not found favour and is still in the melting pot,” he said, adding that the matter will be raised since, “we feel there is justice” and “we look forward to a fruitful meeting with the honourable Prime Minister who we know to be a reasonable man.”
His meeting with Lall was one which was held in good faith, said Green adding that he hopes a genuine effort will be made “to assist the municipality and not to put us further in any faecal area so that we can or cannot survive”.
Meanwhile, on the issue of not being able to pay city workers, Green said that the Guyana Labour Union and the Guyana Local Government Officers Union have been engaged on this matter. “I am happy to announce that both unions through their respective leaders sighed a joint letter which we dispatched to the president on April the 28 seeking the Head of State’s intervention in specific areas which will allow us to raise our threshold of our money,” he said.
“The letters raises the generic issue of the whole question of broadening our revenue base which is our bug bearer,” the mayor continued. The letter also addresses the “dilemma” of the valuation division “which is a mile stone around our necks at the moment”, added Green. He said this matter was discussed in his meeting with Lall and the minister raised the issue, “to titivate the valuation division so we can get that valuation role required by law to be reviewed every three years”.
With a reviewed valuation division, Green says that the council will be the beneficiaries of new structures and will not be “burdened with the old valuation”. He also called for buildings to be revalued.
Green said the letter by the two unions to the President also calls for the disentanglement of “the very cumbersome judicial system” which, according to him, makes it difficult for the council to prosecute and pursue delinquent tax payers. However, he said the President has not responded or even acknowledged receipt of the letter.
The letter was sent to the President because the unions and the council were concerned and both were aware “that you can’t pay what you don’t have. I think the union has recognised the fact that to pay workers late is not acceptable”, Green said.
He disclosed that despite a “tempting” retrenching proposal, there is a policy of not replacing people who retire. However, Green said that the existing staff is barely sufficient for the city to execute its mandate. If all else fails, there is prayer, Green said.
Meantime, speaking of the situation at the registry department, Green said it had been discovered that central government agencies have been disposing of properties without paying the compliance fee. He said that Lall has indicated that he has evidence of this happening. Compliance is the payment of outstanding taxes owned to the council by the owner of a property before it is sold to another person and a new transport issued. “For some inexplicable reason we have discovered that the agency responsible for the disposition of these properties in most cases government properties or quasi-government properties have completed the transaction but we were left naked so to speak without that compliance being adhered to,” Green said.
He also disclosed that Lall spoke of people getting compliance certificates but subsequently receiving notices about taxes owed. He questioned whether this was implied criticism or an accusation against the registry department or some other agency by the minister