Dear Editor,
I am aware of a television programme which featured Minister Norman Whittaker and Mr Keith Burrowes on the National Communications Network over the weekend. These two persons were extremely critical of the administration at City Hall.
I wish to avoid the tedium of a lengthy response, except to say briefly the following:
No organization responsible for the management of works can be effective through the delivery of a satisfactory service without the three basic M’s – money, material and most of all management. Many of the criticisms made by the Minister are valid, in so far as the facts are concerned.
I believe the public and citizens, however, ought to be aware how the central government has for years tied the hands of the Mayor and City Council. By way of example, it took one exhaustive report by the said Keith Burrowes to expose and to have dismissed principal officers, about whom we had expressed concerns for years.
The municipality has been in a cash-strapped mode for two decades for reasons which are well known. The incumbent Mayor and Council attempted in earnest to set things right, by commissioning the Liburd Report which looked at the Engineering Department, SV Jones Associates, the Lynch report and the Canadian consultant Dr West. We recommended the following: the Greater Georgetown Development Plan and the findings of the Burrowes report.
These important recommendations could hardly be executed without ministerial/government cooperation.
Be reminded that the IMC appointed by the PPP government which managed the city even with the support of government, declared that the council could not provide a satisfactory service unless it improved its revenue base, in other words collect money other than property tax. The rest is history. All, I repeal all of the proposals to broaden our revenue base were rejected by the central government.
In so far as the management and the officer corps are concerned, many of these officers are aware that there is no Local Government Commission, and that the Mayor and Council can say as much as they wish, but powers of discipline are with the Minister who is vested only with the authority of the Local Government Commission.
The public need to also be aware of the fact that even as a courtesy, neither Minister Whittaker nor Minister Ganga Persaud have once met with the Mayor and Councillors.
Instead, in breach of all norms of good governance, protocol and decency they have on a regular basis summoned to their ministerial offices the three principal officers, to wit, the Town Clerk, City Treasurer and City Engineer. In fact, on some occasions when I sought guidance on municipal matters I’ve been told they are with the Minister.
There are many things wrong within the administration of the municipality, but the public must judge the source of the cancer. The answer is to hasten local government reform, which should allow a duly elected Mayor and City Council to mobilize resources and to have some real control over the officer corps.
The statement made by a former Minister of Local Government, Mr Kellawan Lall, that he would be glad for a health crisis in Georgetown tells the story – a classical example of history repeating itself.
Again to avoid too many details, the public must know and understand that no Town Clerk in normal circumstances, for example, would lock out a group of opposition parties, civil society, youth and religious leaders from using the Concert Hall, even though the Mayor had recommended its use in writing, after the application by the group who wished to discuss the banning of Channel 6, and more recently giving permission for the use of the Promenade Gardens to a group to hold the Old Year’s Night Party, even though the Mayor, the Social Development Committee and the Republic Bank were not contacted about this event.
In the case of the latter, this is in direct contravention of the terms of agreement with the Bank, and the Council for the Maintenance of the Promenade Gardens. Citizens will recall statements made by the Head of the Presidential Secretariat which supported the use of the gardens in spite of the above.
This explains how the administration paid so-called bonuses to themselves, when neither the Mayor, the Finance Committee, nor the Council were consulted, their approval sought, or even told of this financial payout as a matter of courtesy.
We need to look at the forest and not just the trees. The management of the city is a serious matter. Again, let the public judge.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
Mayor
