Debt-ridden City Hall has approached the government for a bailout after undertaking several Golden Jubilee projects it did not budget for.
“We took on some things, some additional burden, which we are approaching central government for assistance with. We have not received that help as yet but we are still hoping since central government knew we were doing it,” Chairman of the city council’s Finance Committee Oscar Clarke told Stabroek News yesterday.
Stabroek News has learnt that several of these projects were done as part of the council’s contribution to the nation’s 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations. Clarke said that the council “hadn’t budgeted for all the projects. Some things came up for the 50th Anniversary and we just hadn’t discussed them when we were preparing the 2016 budget last year.”
The council is, however, expecting central government to bail it out. According to Clarke, the David Granger administration was aware of the projects undertaken by City Hall and the council has approached it for funding.
Town Clerk Royston King had told Stabroek on Thursday that cash-strapped City Hall still owes hundreds of millions of dollars to contractors and two major projects have been temporarily shelved due to the cash crunch.
Further compounding the issue is the fact that the 2016 Budget and the 2015 financial statements are still to be publicly tabled. According to Section 155 of the Municipal and District Council’s Act, copies of the estimates approved by council shall be open for public inspection at its offices and notice thereof shall be published by council and the notice shall refer to the right of inspection. Section 156 of the Act further provides for the public to inspect a written report containing accounts of all money’s received, expended, and applied during the preceding year.
Mayor Patricia Chase-Green told Stabroek News yesterday that as far as she is aware, the 2016 Budget was completed in time for its November 15, 2015 deadline, approved by the previous council and submitted to the minister in keeping with the requirements of the Act.
Clarke corroborated Chase-Green’s statements and confirmed that though the budget was passed, it is yet to be publicly tabled.
“We were supposed to have done it but the elections caught up with us and we weren’t able to. Since this new council came in, there has been no discussion about tabling the 2016 budget,” he said.
According to Chase-Green, the Finance Committee is in the process of conducting a half-year review of the budget and drafting the 2017 budget. “They will be looking at which projects have been successfully completed in the first half of the year and which projects are still to be completed so the work programme can be adjusted if necessary,” the mayor said.
