Amid complaints about the inefficiency of the City Treasurer’s Department the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) of Georgetown has decided to extend its amnesty to October 31, 2015.
On September 1, M&CC began offering property owners of Georgetown an amnesty on the interest accumulated on property rates owed to the council. The amnesty which was originally offered from September 1 to 30, provides those who are in arrears with the M&CC an opportunity to clear their debt.
Councillor Junior Garrett, addressing the council’s statutory meeting yesterday, explained that while the amnesty has so far generated $320 million for the council, its implementation was seriously curtailed by the inefficiencies of the City Treasurer’s Department.
Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green who chaired the meeting in the absence Mayor Hamilton Green described the system within the City Treasurer’s Department as horrible.
“The system downstairs is horrible. It is horrible. You come here at 8 and get a printout [statement of taxes owed] at 12,” Chase-Green bemoaned while explaining that “for business people, time is money.”
Both Chase-Green and Garrett related stories of citizens who were unable to take advantage of the amnesty offered because there is “only one computer working in the treasurer’s department”
One taxpayer who travelled from Timehri to pay taxes owned on a Georgetown property reportedly spent three hours waiting on a statement of the taxes owed, while another taxpayer had to visit City Hall five times before securing a printout of the debt owed.
These delays are compounded by other inefficiencies as statements once collected are in some cases incorrect forcing taxpayers to return and face even more delays.
The delays in the system led to an explosion of frustrations, yesterday morning when in excess of 100 taxpayers crowded into the compound to pay their taxes.
Dissatisfied taxpayers according to Chase-Green had “one big cuss out” with the staff when they were not competently served.
When Stabroek News visited City Hall yesterday afternoon there was a crowd of approximately 50 persons attempting to get their statements.
One taxpayer Kelvin Simon expressed his frustrations with the system. Simon who had been in the building for more than an hour was nowhere close to concluding his transaction. He noted that though the M&CC has had almost a month to work out the kinks in the systems it had done very little to institute a “proper system” or to provide taxpayers with clear guidelines on the requirements for accessing the service.
He was particularly upset at having been told that he needed to have identification in order to pay his taxes. “Since when you does have to use ID card to pay money?” he asked, adding “I does pay my GPL bill without ID card. You does need ID when you collecting money not when you paying it. I can’t believe they had a whole month and they still ain’t set this thing right. Even if they want you come with ID card why they ain’t advertise that? Why they ain’t put a notice pon the door telling people exactly what they need to bring?”
Chase-Green stressed that “Our failure to be able to provide a quality service as regards the collection of rates and taxes downstairs,” has necessitated this extension.
She noted that this failure persists despite millions of dollars of spent on the tax department. She expressed hope that with the new computing system to be put in place in December 2015, there should be no more problems come 2016 to get a printout.
Under the amnesty, residential property owners will have 100% waiver on the interest of the rates they owe to the council while commercial and corporate property owners will be offered a 50% to 75% amnesty dependent on special circumstances.
A committee of councillors led by Garrett has been meeting with commercial property owners to determine the extent of the amnesty to be offered them. This committee which had previously been available everyday will now meet with applicants on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
