New Amsterdam Mayor Claude Henry has criticized a statement made by PPP/C parliamentarian Faizal Jafarally who had accused the municipality of not submitting financial statements for over fifteen years to the citizenry.
The mayor, speaking at a media briefing, at the council’s boardroom in New Amsterdam on Thursday afternoon described the televised statement as being malicious, untruthful, and damaging to the council.
Earlier, Treasurer Sharon Anderson reiterated that the only thing the council was guilty of was not informing residents regularly about the challenges of rate collection.
“I am not a politician. I believe in speaking the truth. Every cent is accountable. There is no mismanagement in this council. We do not garner the amount we budget for.”
Anderson, accompanied by the Town’s administrators and councilors, gave an insight into the amount of taxes received, noting that “it was only last week that a resident came into the offices to pay thirty-eight years of taxes and do you know how much was that, it was $48,084.”
“Empty lands cost $780 per year and persons from other streets would indiscriminately dump garbage on these empty lands.”
Anderson explained that from the sum collected, fuel has to be purchased and labourers have to be paid to clean the unofficial dumpsites scattered around the township.
“It’s the same thing we have to do over and over again,” she lamented. “It’s not the council who dumps. It is the residents and it is they who are demanding much from the council with their inadequate taxes.”
The treasurer reminded the citizens that it is their responsibility to be lookout agents, even as she recalled that a citizen on complimenting the council on their cleaning exercise told her to send one of her officers urgently to a named location as he had observed that shortly after the drain was cleaned a resident threw a quantity of ‘awaras’ and ‘kookrit’ seeds and shells into the cleaned drain.
Elaborating on the financial status of the council, Anderson said the ongoing tax collection exercise has been problematic and although citizens with outstanding sums were given the opportunity to visit the Town Hall and make an arrangement which would best suit them, many are in default.
“We have had to send out some legal notices, but when some citizens see the name of the attorney on the envelope, they would refuse to accept the notice from the postal official. I have on my desk two large files with returned notices. People who are not paying their taxes are the ones who are making more demands on the council.”
In the meantime, Anderson is urging the residents to pay their takes whether it is weekly or monthly in order to assist in the upkeep of the town, while noting that taxes had not been raised since 1998.
