The very last thing that City Hall needs now that it is probably better-positioned than it was a few months ago to put behind it a past strewn with accusations of fraud, mismanagement and corruption is more of the same, though it seems on the basis of the available evidence that it may not be particularly mindful of the consequences of passing the same way twice.
It is fair to say that the parking meter project long predated the emergence of the present municipal administration though it has to be said too that its current incarnation emerged, largely, out of the blue, in the sense that it might have taken much of the citizenry by surprise.
Beyond that, we now know more than enough to deduce from what has been disclosed that there is a lack of straightforwardness in the information placed in the public domain about the two named companies said to be associated with the project. Beyond that, there is also the issue of the clear and persistent pronouncement by Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan regarding his non-support for the project, a circumstance that reflects far from well on the cohesiveness of the newly elected leadership team at City Hall.
If it is altogether unsurprising that the Town Clerk has moved to apply his own version of image- management to a situation that appears to have been badly mishandled, the fact that there are strong suggestions of considerable internal controversy as far as the project is concerned would appear to point to an altogether unacceptable level of lack of cohesiveness and, unquestionably, a fair degree of ineptitude in City Hall’s management of its information dissemination on the project.
As an aside, one has to wonder whether what appears to be the unfolding of serious differences of opinion amongst high-level city officials this early in the life of the administration does not point in a less than encouraging direction as far as putting the past behind us is concerned. Are we witnessing a repeat of the regime of divisiveness and cliquishness that had, for so many years, manifested itself in the mismanagement of City Hall?
If the parking meters project could, in the longer term, turn out to be a money-earner for a City Hall that never seems to be short of liquidity problems, the citizenry as a whole appears far from convinced as to the extent to which it will impact positively on our traffic woes. However, and to the extent that this is true, it would certainly be passing strange, and unacceptable, if someone at the level of the Vice Chairman of the Council’s Finance Committee was unaware of the signing of the contract for the execution of the project. But whether that was the case or otherwise, the Vice Chairman’s view on the correctness of broad-based consultations (with the citizens, the private sector, the police traffic department and ministries) can hardly be refuted. It would be irrational, to say the least, to proceed with such a project whilst leaving the aforementioned stakeholders out of the loop. This would certainly appear to have been the case and it would seem as though some persons whom one would have thought might be in the corner of the Mayor and company are on another side, a bad sign to say the least.
City Hall may have won itself some plaudits for its recent urban cleanup efforts. It should not, however, look a gift horse in the mouth. Georgetown remains in a less than satisfactory state and the Town Clerk should not assume that the municipality’s protracted regime of underperformance has disappeared from the public consciousness.
The criticisms that the parking meter project could justifiably attract might have to do with whether – at this juncture – there might not be other more pressing needs. On the other hand, that perception might well have to do with the fact that City Hall has not troubled itself to provide the public with far more information on the project and its anticipated outcomes.
As if that were not enough it transpires that the Mayor, the Town Clerk and a handful of other officials took themselves off to Mexico recently, reportedly to check on the parking meters. That immediately set tongues wagging, the enquiry revolving around the issue of being whether the team that set off for Mexico possessed any meaningful expertise in the matter of parking meters and whether, in fact, this might not simply be a manifestation of a junket culture with which Guyana has become familiar.
All in all, it would appear that the Mayor, the Town Clerk et al might well have extended themselves to the point where they have attracted to both themselves and to the municipality as a whole a good deal of justifiable criticism far too early in the tenure of the new municipal administration. If the leadership at City Hall does not back away hastily from what is felt in some quarters to be its high-handed behaviour in the matter of the parking meters, more damaging public queries may arise down the road.
Power often has the effect of making those who enjoy it indifferent to public opinion, though for their own sakes as much as for the sake of City Hall, those occupying high office in the municipality would be well-advised to avoid that road.
