The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) yesterday called for an urgent consultation with the city council on the proposed parking meters and voiced concern at the failure to use an open tender process.
A release yesterday from GCCI said that on July 1, 2016, the Chamber’s Executive Management Committee sent correspondence to the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) seeking a meeting to ”discuss the pressing matter of the introduction of a Parking Meter System in Georgetown”.
During a meeting with the M&CC on June 3, 2016, the Chamber said that a proposal for a Parking Meter System in Georgetown was mentioned and it was promised by the M&CC that before this arrangement is finalised, there would be a number of consultations held with the stakeholders of this project, one of them being the private sector. Following that meeting, the Chamber said that there have been numerous stories within the media on the implementation of the parking meter system including rates and other details of the agreement between M&CC and a collaborating company. The Chamber said that all of this cannot be verified due to the lack of communication between the M&CC and primary stakeholders.
In recent weeks the city and its Mayor, Patricia Chase-Green have been adamant that a contract has been signed for the parking meters and they would be in place later this year.
The Chamber in its statement yesterday said that as Guyana’s leading private sector business support organisation, it has a responsibility to serve as a channel of information between government agencies and its members.
“We are therefore requesting that a Consultation Forum between the M&CC and the private sector, as promised, be convened immediately to resolve the matter at hand. Our members are made up of businesses of all categories, all of which will be unjustly and adversely affected by the parking meter system due to the costs. Before any binding arrangements are made, due diligence must be performed, and that includes the consultative process. The private sector must be provided with basic information regarding the parking meter system; and we must also be given an opportunity to provide critical input and recommendations”, the Chamber declared.
It added that it is also “deeply concerned about the M&CC’s failure to follow proper public procurement procedures in the form of an open tender process to attract various proposals that will be best for Guyana.”
The Chamber says it expects the M&CC to operate on the “principles of transparency, democracy and accountability, and as such, we anticipate a timely response to this urgent matter”.
The parking meters plan has been broadly condemned for the absence of tendering, the lack of transparency in arrangements and the proposed tariffs.
