$2M from Govt. barely enough to offset Council’s expenses – City Mayor

Oct 27, 2020 News

City Mayor Ubraj Narine

Kaieteur News – Alluding to the heavy expenses of the Georgetown Council, City Mayor, Ubraj Narine, has called the $2M, which was allocated by the Government to assist the Council with the payment of staff, barely enough.
During a statutory meeting held at City Hall yesterday, the Mayor expressed his disappointment at the offer by the Ministry of Local Government to assist the Council with offsetting its expenses.
Narine told members of the Council that the meager $2M is a shameful gesture by the Government, in light of all the financial issues that the Council is dealing with. In this regard, the Mayor listed the numerous financial woes of the Council.
“This Council owes the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) over $400M since 1994, over $20M outstanding for the constabulary retroactively, we have issues with the garbage collection within the city and we have to pay over 700 staff,” he said.
The Mayor’s comments followed an announcement by Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall, informing that Government will allocate $2million to each municipality to ensure that council staffers, who have not been paid for months, receive wages and salaries.
Dharamlall noted that the Government recognises that municipalities have not been able to generate revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic and sought to assist.
“The Government has made a decision to release funds in support of the expenditure incurred by municipalities to pay staff in this specific case, with each municipality set to receive $2million,” Minister Dharamlall said.
He noted that the Ministry of Finance has advised him that the funds will be released to each municipality.