Amid burgeoning criticism, Town Clerk Royston King yesterday said that a city team in Mexico City is being presented with the final rollout schedule of a controversial parking meters project.
Opposition to the deal within the Mayor and City Council and from outside is growing over a number of issues including the lack of competitive bidding for the project, the bona fides of the stakeholders in the deal, the secrecy surrounding the project, whether it is viable, whether a contract has been signed and the absence of public consultations.
Notwithstanding these concerns and amid disquiet among councillors from their own group, Mayor of Georgetown Patricia Chase-Green and a team of three is in Mexico City, Mexico for what has been described as the final rollout of the deal with National Parking Systems/Smart City Solutions (NPS/SCS). The pathway to the deal has been questioned by councillors but it is still to be answered by Chase-Green. Who financed the trip to Mexico City has also been a question raised by councillors.
Amid days of criticism over the project and the lack of publicity of the trip to Mexico, Town Clerk King yesterday took the unusual step of issuing a city press release from overseas. Chase-Green and King have been accompanied to Mexico City by councillors Oscar Clarke and Junior Garrett. All four were associated with old council for at least two decades. No new members of the city council elected at March’s local government vote was on the trip to Mexico.
In his statement yesterday King said that the Mayor, the Chairman of the Council’s Finance Committee, and the Town Clerk were among the officials of the City of Georgetown visiting Mexico City to be presented with the “final rollout schedule of the new parking project, which is actually more of a mobility solution for the City of Georgetown. In addition, the delegation is being presented with other innovations, which may be offered and brought to our great City.”
He said that the Mayor and City leadership continue with their “hands on approach in their overseeing of a project which began with extensive due diligence on a parking solution and continues now with their involvement in consideration of other complimentary projects that can be offered by the
Smart City Solutions consortium to enhance the intelligent products, services and amenities available to the citizens of Georgetown”.
King’s release said that as a result of the visit, the delegation’s “opinion has been strengthened that the parking and mobility solutions coming to Georgetown will become the pioneering centre of wider modernisation and improvements coming to the City that will accelerate it towards parity with the other great capital cities across the world”.
It added “While it is unfortunate that certain individuals have taken advantage of the absence of the Mayor to advance negative, divisive and completely untrue narratives, the Mayor and the travelling delegation plan to hold a press conference upon their return to provide updates on this very important and productive trip…”
Major criticism of the deal has come from Deputy Mayor, Sherod Duncan.
Why the city didn’t go for a broad invitation list for the parking meters project instead of picking NPS/SMS is another area that the Mayor and those in favour of the deal have not explained.
This is even more glaring in the light of a recent advertisement in the Kaieteur News by the city seeking proposals for the provision of a range of services. The supply of the parking meters would definitely have come under this competitive process.
The advertisement was headlined `Request for pre-qualification of contractor/and or suppliers of goods and services required by the Georgetown municipality for 2016’.
The Municipality invited bids and proposals from contractors and suppliers who wish to be considered to supply goods and services as hereby mentioned below:
1) Trucking and transportation services
This work entails the transportation of workers, and or materials required for construction activities, residue from drainage works and removal of encumbrances
2) Rehabilitation and maintenance of structures, buildings and clearing alleyways, canals and other waterways in Georgetown
This work entails construction and or rehabilitation or maintenance of buildings, bridges, sluices within the boundaries of Georgetown.
In addition, the cleaning and desilting of drains, alleyways and canals.
3) Rental of equipment
Rental of equipment such as rollers, excavators, four and six inch pumps hydraulic jack hammers
4) Supply of office furniture
5) Supply of protective gears
6) Supply of materials for the construction of roads, security and public health related activities
