Dear Editor,
There is an old adage in Guyana which says that one needs to learn to creep, before one can learn to walk, but it sounds like the Georgetown Municipality has never heard of this, as they always seem anxious to get involved in secondary activities before they even come close to mastering the primary ones that they are obligated to provide to the citizenry, and I will give a few of many such unfortunate examples.
At the point of convergence of North and Vlissengen roads, and Church and Irving streets there is a monstrous sign advertising a skip bin rental service to interested residents being offered by the Georgetown Municipality.
This sounds like a good initiative by the Council, only except for the fact that the Council does not have the requisite infrastructure and other resources to effect an adequate and consistent refuse collection and disposal service as it is obligated to provide, but is instead forced to contract these services out at high cost. Should they not let the private companies provide the skip bin rental services whilst they focus on refuse collection themselves?
But what makes the situation even more absurd is that true to form their skip bin rental service leaves much to be desired, as my relatives from overseas have experienced with the bins being delivered to and retrieved from customers late, with what appears to be a shortage of these bins and the vehicle to facilitate the delivery of these bins being unavailable due to mechanical defects etc.
The City Police Department is another example which has gotten itself involved in traffic management, an area that is being competently handled by the Guyana Police Force, whilst they are not even able to effectively provide security at the municipal markets or in the city.
I would like to suggest to the Council that they get the basics working properly first before trying anything fancy.
It is disappointing that a Commissioner from the Local Government Commission indicated the intention not to send any municipal officer home in spite of the findings of the recent Commission of Inquiry which expressly stated that some of these inept officers should all be sent home for their incompetence.
Yours faithfully,
Roseanne Rodgers
