After a majority of city councillors voted to approve amendments to the contract between the city administration and National Parking Systems/Smart City Solutions (NPS/SCS), City Hall last week signed the updated agreement for the introduction of parking meters that would see a lower toll, among other things.
At a council statutory meeting on September 26, 2016, a motion was moved by Councillor Oscar Clarke for the amendments of the controversial parking meter contract to be adopted and included in the contract, which was first signed on May 13, 2016.
The amendments, which were presented to the full council on August 31, include the reduction of the parking tariff to $50 per 15 minutes from the originally proposed “up to $125” per 15-minute interval, as well as the reduction of the length of the contract to 20 years from 49 years.
Seventeen of the 21 councillors present voted in favour of the motion, while the two People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Councillors, Khame Sharma and Bishram Kuppen, voted against and councillor Andrea Marks along with Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan abstained.
Duncan, who has been very public in his opposition to the manner in which the contract was awarded, told Stabroek News that while the amendments were passed using a democratic process he respects, he could not support them because they were part of a contract that didn’t follow the legally required process.
He reminded that reviews of the contract by the Ministry of Finance and the Attorney General also found “many additional faults” but noted that he is pleased that the rejection of the original contract led to the citizens of Georgetown getting “much, much more than the contract offered from the inception.”
The contract between NPS/SCS and the administration of the city of Georgetown has been the source of several controversies since its signing, with a primary concern being the fact that the city never engaged in public tendering for the project, thereby contravening municipal procurement laws.
Following the widespread public concern generated by this oversight, government ordered that a review be done to ascertain if there were any irregularities.
Two reviews were done on the deal: one by the Ministry of Finance and the other by the Attorney-General’s Chambers. The Ministry of Finance’s review severely criticised the deal, saying that government procurement rules may have been transgressed, while the AG’s review also pointed out that the terms highly favour the contractor.
The reviews, however, did not find the contract to be illegal and the central government recommended only that the city renegotiate the contract after seeking the advice of an accountant.
Following the council’s decision, Town Clerk Royston King was charged with signing and operationalising the amended contract on behalf of the council.
Attempts to ascertain from Mayor Patricia Chase-Green whether the amended contract was actually signed proved futile as the Mayor said that she has decided she “won’t be speaking to Stabroek News on this matter ever again.”
King, however, told Stabroek News yesterday that the amended contract was signed “sometime late last week.”
Meanwhile, the contractor NPS/SCS, under the direction of the Managing Director of Business Development Amir Oren, is conducting a vigorous public relations campaign to inform the public about the terms of the contract as well as the scope of the service to be provided. Oren has replaced Ifa Cush as the face of the company’s operations.
According to Public Relations consultant for NPS/SCS Kit Nascimento, Cush, who introduced the project and company to the Guyanese public, remains a member of the NPS/SCS Board of Directors but “does not have an operational role in the project” and is instead a “local advisor.”
A biography of Oren, provided by Nascimento, states that he is Head of Business Development for the Latin American Region of the Russian company, Giprosvyaz SPB. The biography refers to Giprosvyaz SPB as the leading telecommunications engineering firm of the Russian Federation, with a storied 78-year history and which now seeks to take advantage of its substantial footprint and spread its various business interests towards the Latin American region.
Prior to working with Giprosvyaz SPB Oren held various positions in several financial companies based in the United States.
The biography excludes the fact that Oren is also one of the original founders of Movilot, a leading designer, builder and operator of mobile gaming entertainment platforms. The other founder being Simon Moshel present Chief Operations Officer of Giprosvyaz Latin America. Moshel had visited Guyana earlier this year as a representative of the interest of Smart City Solutions.
