Am I paying rates and taxes for rat-ridden markets and bad roads?

Jan 01, 2012 Letters

Dear Sir,
As a citizen of Georgetown, I am very tired and fed-up with the goings- on at the council. If it isn’t one thing it’s another. Every time you read or hear about the council it is something ludicrous.
In spite of that we the rate payers are asked to pay for services we are not getting. Some of us have given up on the council a long time ago. Now we are being asked to pay 52 percent instead of 40 percent of property rates.
I am paying the council for no street lights, murky drains, rat-ridden markets, bad roads, and parapets overgrown with bushes, alley ways with overgrowths and undergrowths and reptiles. These are just some of the things we property owners are paying rates and taxes for in Georgetown.
Disgustingly, in the Kaieteur News of Thursday, December 29, 2011, I read the story of the Treasurer paying out monies to his staff without the permission of the council.
The treasurer paid the Town Clerk $400,000.00. He has also paid himself and the Budget Manager $360,000 each. Other juniors got varying amounts ranging from $80,000 to 25.000.This was an incentive paid to the treasurer and his staff alone for bringing money during amnesty.
Meanwhile, more than nine drainage workers were left without money for the holidays. How sad. Employees who received their salaries got incentives and overtime pay while drainage workers, the people who are most vulnerable and do the hardest work got nothing for the Christmas. The entire council ought to be ashamed of this saga.
It is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. In fact, it is really fraud. The police should have already been called in to deal with the issue.  At the very least, there should be a thorough investigation into this issue with the view of making strong and sensible recommendations to prevent the citizens’ money from being used with such indiscretion.
And what about the other staff who worked in different ways to assist the amnesty? I am sure that they are completely devastated by this act of selfishness on the part of the treasurer.
But it is a symptom of a deeper problem with the council. It has to be the case of very poor accountability and responsibility for the treasurer or anyone to be able to pay himself and other senior officers without the permission of the council. One wonders what else is happening in the city treasury.
This is the same council that owes the garbage contractors, Guyana Revenue Authority, National Insurance Scheme, and other corporations like Guyana Power and Light and Guyana Water Inc. This is the same council that has Georgetown nasty with heaps of garbage all over the place breeding flies and mosquitoes. The city is a health hazard; a disaster waiting to happen.
Some time ago, it was reported in the very Kaieteur News that Mr. Andrew Meredith the treasurer was involved in a bribery scandal.  An investigation was launched but no one knows what has become of it.
A few years ago, the council launched an inquiry into a similar action by the then City Treasurer Roderick Edinboro and Town Clerk Beulah Williams. They were subsequently relieved of their duties.
Recently, the council announced an investigation into the engineer’s department again no one knows what has become of it.
The Mayor said that both investigations were aborted by the Minister of Local Government and that the Town Clerk, Engineer and Treasurer are frequent guests of the Minister of Local Government. The Mayor himself is not invited to these meetings. These too are serious allegations that need to be investigated.
While the world is moving on Georgetown is stuck with the same old worries. It is unable to get ahead with the task of managing the capital and encouraging investments.
James Martian