Dear Editor,

On Monday, July 5, the Guyana Times carried three letters related to the Georgetown municipality titled ‘Who will fix the city in preparation for tourism?’; ‘Garbage pile up is a disgrace’; and ‘It was a low act to remove GT&T billboards.’ No one, least of all the Mayor, can disagree with the sentiments expressed in these letters.

The first letter poses a vital question: we can fix the city, provided we get the genuine support of central government as is the case elsewhere in the modern democratic world. This is how a democracy should operate. To fix any city, requires the three Ms – management, material and money. With sufficient money the other Ms can be obtained quite easily – material, manpower and management.

I have made this point time and time again: the government-appointed Interim Management Committee since 1994, even with state funding and cooperation for obvious reasons, said that if the city was to be given proper service, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council needed to broaden its revenue base; in other words earn money in addition to taxes.

After the local government elections, the first proposal made directly to the head of state by a delegation headed by the Mayor and including Ms Philomena Sahoye-Shury and the Town Clerk sought permission to have a lottery. This was turned down; the government said that a lottery would upset the religious community. Within a few months, the idea was hijacked by government, and the massive funds earned from lotto are spent as the government leaders deem fit. Every other proposal to garner money was rejected.

The most recent was a council approved proposal, to use the garbage at the Le Repentir dumpsite to generate electricity, offering it to the nearby communities at a special rate. If this project had been approved, the money generated would have been available to pay contractors to collect and dispose of the tons of garbage generated in the city and brought into it from areas outside. At the opening of the Kitty Pump Station I raised the issue, and the President’s response was that they were concentrating on hydropower (Amaila Falls).

We have several shortcomings within the city municipality, but some intractable difficulties are outside of our control. Just a few examples:

1. The law requires a revaluation of properties in Georgetown every three years. This has to be done by the Government Valuation Division, which comes under the control of the Ministry of Finance. That department moves at a snail’s pace, in so far as that important exercise is concerned. So we have small dwellings converted to large buildings or to businesses and we cannot collect the higher rates because of no new valuation.

2. A state-created agency has been disposing of several high-value properties in the city. The method is not our concern at the moment, but the registry has been persuaded to effect change of ownership without, as is required by law, a certificate of compliance from the city council, so the new owners quite understandably refuse to pay the back taxes due to us by the state agency.

The GPL is a classic example – we are taking about millions owed to us. When we submitted demand notices to GPL they contended that when they acquired the assets of GEC (the building) they were not required to settle outstanding taxes. A most unusual situation.

3. When (as we have been doing) we move to the courts, the pain of appeals and delays is beyond belief.

4. We have written and pleaded with the Minster of Finance to pay us their taxes for the second and third quarter – due and payable $102M – but no response.

5. Among similar cases is the Milk Plant, still government property as far as we know; they owe us $48M.

It is crystal clear the policy is to punish the capital, pulverise the mayoralty until both the citizens and the Mayor cave in. We will then be told that only a PPP dominated council in the city can deliver the goods. So much for democracy and the concept of shared governance.

Allow me to refer to the other letter about destroying the GT&T billboards. They were placed on our parapets; the law is clear but you see this type of activity brings us some revenue, so a big bad bully sends a clear message to the private sector, do no business with the city council. Unhappily we now seem to have a toothless private sector group; where else could a government minister with chainsaws cut down signs approved by the competent authority and except for a few letters and the Kaieteur News front page there is nothing but a deepening silence. Where is the Chamber of Commerce, the Private Sector Commission and those who clamoured for a return to democracy? Forget the Mayor and City Council pro tem; is not GT&T a company in Guyana?

Forget how the Mayor and City Council car park, a money generating enterprise, was seized by the state bosses – no notice, no explanation and no compensation. By this letter and other means. I will not be silenced.

With respect to the other letter dealing with persons who walk about the city and contribute to its ugliness, I raised this with the Minister of Health some time ago. He was quite receptive and I know took some action, but this problem needs to be dealt with boldly by a multi-agency task force. I once made a suggestion for an island of rehabilitation, away from populated centres.

The struggle continues.

Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
Mayor