Dear Editor,
In an attempt to project himself as the ‘Superman’ of the 21st century, Mayor Hamilton Green in a letter to SN on May 5 stated that “given the authority or scope with others he could re-make Georgetown the Garden City it still can be in less than six to ten months.“
To support his self-assured capability to do so he cited his tenure as Minister of Works, Hydraulics and Supply (MWHS) when under the PNC government and according to his assertion he transformed one of the most inept and wasteful ministries in this part of the world as the most productive within a year because of his ability and the opportunity of a full rein to do so. Hence if given the same open-ended chance he could transform Georgetown likewise to its former glory.
I happened to work under ex-Minister Green at the MWHS and found him one of, if not the most powerful persons under then President Burnham, as was evident at the time from the unilateral and arbitrary decisions he took without challenge and the number of security officers who accompanied him wherever he went. Unfortunately, he was short on competence and leadership abilities which often reflected in the brutal execution of his duties, as most of his decisions technical or otherwise were based on his over-riding notion that, “It’s my way or the highway.”
The MWHS during the late 1950s and 1960s had some of the most capable and knowledgeable technical and administrative staff in the civil service. These were the people who through their hard work and dedication designed and built the drainage and irrigation projects, highways, sea defences, National Cultural Centre, etc, as we know them today. Unfortunately, in later years many of these people left MWHS and without suitable replacements it became depleted of the needed skills up to this day. Therefore, during ex-Minister Green’s tenure there were not that many inept/wasteful/lazy skilled personnel left in his ministry who needed to be reined in, as he claimed, to make them productive once again by providing them with the skills, knowledge and attitudes to perform their duties competently and efficiently within a year, a somewhat tall order. To support his claim and to convince readers of his administrative skills he should have stated the divisions he turned around with the outstanding projects they executed which made MWHS super productive when he was tasked with discharging the functions of Minister.
Mayor Hamilton Green has been a disaster for the suffering citizens of Georgetown as he has failed to grasp and/or ignored the basic needs of the city, and continues to plug his hodge-podge of conflicting interests with the state instead of seeking compromises and complex deal-making to get basic things done, such as effective drainage and reducing flooding at every cloudburst; regular garbage collection with proper disposal; repairs to deteriorated roads and bridges; street lighting; enforcing the city’s bye-laws and so forth and so on. To make a bad situation worse, his loss of trust with the state has not improved his stature to negotiate for relief and get things done for a financially strapped city. Finally, the Mayor should be credited for conceding that for the city to be viable it requires money and effective management both of which he has failed to address seriously in any meaningful way. Much of the rates and taxes collected have failed to provide basic needed services and are spent on a bloated and inefficient bureaucracy as well as propping certain services and facilities which should be divested. Money will never be sufficient for the city to fund its wish list, but politics aside a start should be made to convince the citizenry that the rates and taxes they pay if properly managed and allocated can provide them with at least some semblance of service for which they have been yearning for so long.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
