Government yesterday announced that it had ordered a review of the contract for the city’s parking meters, to ascertain if it contained any illegalities.
“So this is the decision that Cabinet took, that the Attorney General’s Chamber and the Ministry of Finance will have a look at the contract to see if there is anything…, that closely resembles the complaints made by citizens,” Minister of State Joseph Harmon told a post-Cabinet press conference yesterday.
Mayor of Georgetown Patricia Chase-Green had announced on Monday, that the city will be going ahead with the parking meters project, which will come on stream from September 1.
Chase-Green had led a team which had last week visited Mexico and Panama to look at parking meters there, and said that she was very satisfied that the contractor, National Parking Systems (NPS), which is part of an international consortium, can provide a product which will be beneficial to the people of Georgetown.
Having met Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan and provided him with a copy of the contract and supporting documents prior to her announcement, the mayor asserted the right of the council, in keeping with the Municipal and District Councils Act Chapter 28:01, to proceed with developmental works for the local government authority it oversees.
The proposed deal has engendered controversy over a series of matters including the bona fides of NPS.
Harmon explained that at yesterday’s Cabinet meet, Bulkan gave a briefing on the issue and the decision to have the contract reviewed was made.
“Cabinet was briefed by the Minister of Communities under whose remit the NDCs and the towns fall. Cabinet discussed the council’s initiative to have paid parking along selected streets as a means opened to garner revenue … While cabinet is committed to honouring and respecting the independence and authority of our municipalities and NDCs, it nonetheless, decided, given that Georgetown is a capital city and that the decisions made by the town council will affect all Guyanese who have to come into the city, … to have the contract reviewed by the Ministry of Finance and the Attorney General’s Chambers,” Harmon asserted.
“The important point that we need to make here is that the council is a young council; that we believe that the council must operate independently; that government will not interfere with the running of these councils, but [given] claims that there is something wrong with this contract, that there is some illegality about it then certainly government has a responsibility to have a look at the contract itself,” he added.
He said government will not overreach into the duties of the city but will ensure that whatever procurement practices are applied are within the law.
The Mayor said that the previous council, in November 2015, entered into an agreement with NPS/SCS to provide a parking platform which will “improve mobility, increase parking space availability and turnover, reduce traffic congestion in Georgetown and pay a share of its revenue to our city.”
However, her administration, inclusive of herself and the town clerk, made a decision not to make public or share the contract with other councillors out of fear that the opportunity for this foreign direct investment would be stolen from the city.
“We took a deliberate decision not to share the contract because we wanted to secure the investment. We have had bad experiences with sharing contracts, proposals and initiatives only to have them subtly taken away from the council,” Chase-Green said, adding that the contract which was signed by Town Clerk Royston King was a “private document of the administration.”
Since the announcement of the city’s intention to proceed with this project there have been concerns raised by both members of the public and several councillors, including Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan.
Duncan had publicly stated, “…All the processes leading to and emanating from this contentious contract have been weighed and found wanting.”
The series of concerns raised about the parking meters deal include that there should have been a competitive process, that no information could be found about the bona fides of NPS/SCS and the secrecy surrounding the deal and the visit to Mexico, which included councillors Oscar Clarke and Junior Garrett.
