Dear Editor,
Statistics will show that a vast majority of APNU+AFC supporters are registered voters of the municipalities of Linden and Georgetown. With that in mind the central administration should pay serious attention to local administration in the said municipalities, especially the City of Georgetown, because of the size of the population, and hence the number of voters/supporters.
The city is currently managed absolutely by members of the APNU+AFC, in particular APNU. As such whatever is reflected by City Hall is a representation of central government. The public opinion of City Hall is somewhat mixed and in some cases skewed. The diversity of opinion includes:
- The city is looking better than before. (A view that hinges on the poor standard set by the previous council which included some of the same APNU members currently in City Hall)
- The city is being mismanaged and failing to live up to its potential as the ‘Garden City’.
- Give the new council and the new government more time ‘deh trying.’
My focus here is on the last view. I believe that central government must intervene in the current state of City Hall, and I say this from a knowledgeable standpoint. The intervention by central government need not only be in the form of bailouts, but by audits, reorganizing and revamping the current system. It is time for genuine opposition, accountability and transparency in City Hall.
Article 72 of the Guyana Constitution talks about local government being a vital aspect of democracy, and as such the system was created with the supporting legislation. Our population was and continues to be swayed by this very notion and of course the whims of our draftsmen.
The system was designed to maintain the control of central government while bluffing the democratically oriented minds. For example, the council is democratically elected, however it is the Town Clerk – for the moment a political appointee who has the executive powers of the council. I can go on and on about the hypocrisies of the system and the fetters central government has over local government.
So where we have Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) that are dominated by councillors of the opposition party in Parliament, there will be a government party person as a Regional Executive Officer (REO). While central government may appreciate our system of governance, it goes both ways; that is, when a local area authority is failing the government will be blamed.
A classic example is Georgetown under the previous administration. The city council had a golden excuse for blaming the then Town Clerk Carol Sooba, a PPP political appointee, for inefficiencies, amongst other things, and to cast aspersions on the PPP government. While the accusations may or may not have much justification, at the end of the day the central government was held accountable. As such some councillors were given a renewed opportunity under the current central government and new Town Clerk. Should there be a failure of the current council, the golden question will be: Who is to be blamed now?
I love my city and I try to maintain optimism, but not when it is an affront to common sense. City Hall is currently operating on an overdraft, according to the last reported updated bank statement of approximately $383M, with approximately $50M being added within the last two months. The debt to contractors is approximately $300M (Ministry of Communities to give $176M towards payment of this debt) and there is a variance of $844M in the 2017 budget estimates. Consider, those figures together with the current state of affairs that we are aware of; I reckon that City Hall is on dismal path approaching abyss.
The time for real change is now; there should be a positive change in the way things are done and in our politics. We must have more accountability, transparency, a balance of power with genuine opposition and inclusive politics. If the central government does not take action now, they can lose much needed votes from the City of Georgetown come 2020.
Yours faithfully,
Selwyn Odavo Smartt
Councillor
Municipality of Georgetown
