The Mayor and Councillors of the Georgetown last evening voted to ask the central government for a $600 million “bailout” to pay creditors and meet expenses.
The decision was taken amidst uncertain that the latest amnesty on interest owed on property rates—due to begin today—would generate the funds needed by the cash-strapped municipality.
Waste disposal contractors Puran Brothers Disposal Inc and Cevons Waste Management are among the city’s creditors and had threatened to suspend services from yesterday over hundreds of millions owed to them. Stabroek News has, however, been informed that at a meeting with the contractors, the city asked for a week to secure necessary funds and has since been given until November 21 to make payments.
The city administration had hoped that the 15-day amnesty, on the interest accrued on unpaid property rates, would help it recover a substantial portion of $22 billion in property rates owed so that it could pay its creditors. Some $16 billion of the owed property rates is allegedly owed by businesses.
The councillors, however, do not have much faith that the reality of the amnesty will match the expectation and have chosen to hedge their bets by reaching out to the central government, through the Communities Ministry, for assistance.
Immediately following the Mayor’s announcements at yesterday’s statutory council meeting, Councillor Junior Garrett moved a motion to have the standing orders suspended so that the “city’s financial situation could be discussed.”
In tabling his motion, which was seconded by Councillor Gregory Fraser, Garrett implored his fellow councillors to support him to seek “the intervention of central government for a bailout of a minimum of $600 million to be used for the payment of contractors, preparations of the city for the visit of His Royal Highness Prince Harry as well as the salaries of council workers.”
According to Garrett, the amnesty being offered from today is not guaranteed to raise even a fraction of the $22 billion owed and so more reliable methods of sourcing revenue must be used. “We are having a visit from the Prince. We have monies owed to contractors for garbage and contractors for drainage and irrigation. We have staff salaries to pay and we know that for the past two months salaries have been paid late. Salaries should be paid when due, so in the absence of funds we will have to seek government intervention. There is no guarantee that this amnesty will bring in the target of $500 million but we are certain that the contractors and staff have to be paid and we have to do work for the Prince’s visit,” Garrett explained.
His request found favour with most of the councillors, with several extolling the progress made by the administration in cleaning the city since May, 2015 and bemoaning the failure of the previous administration to realise similar results with a $500 million allocation for the rehabilitation of Georgetown.
Councillor Fraser declared that less than half the sum allocated for rehabilitation under the last administration was used to generate the results which have earned universal praise. “We would have spent less to do the type of clean up that earned local and overseas praise. We spend less than half of what the last administration did without result. I am convinced that because of the attitude we have displayed, the central government will support our request. We spent all we had to get this city clean and now we are in a situation where we have no money, so we should approach the central government, which we made look good, to ask for relief,” Fraser explained.
Councillor Roopnarine ‘Ron’ Persaud was, however, unimpressed with the arguments emanating from the horseshoe table.
Persaud declared that if he were the central government, he would deny the council’s request. “If I were central government, I’d give you no money,” he said, before adding that the council has been spending indiscriminately while failing to aggressively collect revenue owed.
“I don’t wish to partake in going with a begging bowl to central government. We have resources that can more than suffice. What we have to do is put our ducks in a row and when we put our ducks in a row and when we go forward with the right plan and attitude, we won’t have to be going back to government over and over and over again,” Persaud argued.
He reminded that it was only last year that central government had provided the city with $300 million for its rehabilitation.
“We just got $300 million and we spent it out. We spending like a drunken sailor on shore leave. As soon as we get the money, we gone wild and within one month we have everybody coming here and lining up for money,” he said.
According to the APNU+AFC councillor, who operates a business in the city, the failures of the council has caused him personal embarrassment.
“As a councillor, I am finding myself in a predicament, a very difficult position, because the people coming to me and saying ‘you owe for this zinc sheet, what y’all doing at council;’ ‘you owe for this steel;’ ‘I drop me cement and ain’t get pay.’ I am becoming tired of having to hide for two, three days; I can’t get to do my work. We have to focus on our business plan. I can’t think of anybody who can be owed $16 billion or $20 billion and scrunching for dollar to dollar. We put ourselves in a weak position when we have go to central government begging. If we go to central government because we need the funds, then we need to show them how we are going to give them back this money,” he passionately declared, before adding that the $16 billion owed by businesses could fund the city’s works for eight years if council were more proactive in attempts to secure that revenue.
Despite Persaud’s arguments, the majority of councillors present voted to request at least $600 million from central government. Councillor Carlyle Goring and Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan were absent at the time of the vote, while Persaud and People’s Progressive Party\Civic councillors Bisham Kuppen and Khame Prakash Sharma abstained.
