Whenever City Hall is in the news, it is mostly either troubling news or about getting help to manage itself. Unsurprisingly, City Hall is in the news again, as a probe has been launched by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) into a conspiracy to defraud City Hall’s coffers. This conspiracy has allegedly been hatched between a contractor and staff at the Council.
While SOCU has not yet officially revealed the total sum of money involved in the alleged fraud, it has been reported in the media that this amounts to millions of dollars.
To capture the magnitude of the new allegations of corruption at City Hall, let’s examine the alleged scheme to defraud: 1) The contractor was hired in October 2015 to execute tasks such as weeding parapets, raking up debris, desilting alleyways and street drains, clearing empty lots, cutting down trees and painting tree trunks and lanterns. 2) in 2017, a staff of the Council asked the then APNU/AFC Government to pay the $127M bill to the contractor for the 2015-2017 period. 3) In November 2020, another senior official accepted and signed a letter claiming that M&CC owes the same contractor $128M. 4) the Council moved a motion requesting that 25% of the sum allegedly owed to the contractor be paid immediately.
Now, it has been revealed that the contractor was paid $130M by City Hall during the period 2016-2018.
Over the years, the issue regarding the operations of City Hall and the need for accountability has been a sore issue. When the PPP/C Government took office in 2020, Local Government and Regional Development Minister Nigel Dharamlall raised questions regarding accountability for the $300 million Restoration Fund which was contributed to the Georgetown Mayor and City Council for the restoration of the dilapidated City Hall Building.
The issues of transparency at City Hall have been many. It could be recalled also that the M&CC and then the APNU/AFC Government had embarked on a massive city-wide cleanup campaign in Georgetown and its environs. While these efforts produced fairly good results regarding the general appearance of the city and its environs, the political Opposition at the time (PPP) and other stakeholders had raised questions in relation to the contracts awarded to carry out the works.
The general perception was that friends and party supporters were the main beneficiaries. However, in spite of concerns that were raised about accountability and transparency, no effort was made to provide clarity to the public in relation to the sums expended and the beneficiaries of the contracts.
For years, taxpayers in the city of Georgetown have not seen the kind of development they expected. Georgetown continues to battle with garbage; insanitation; strays, junkies and vagrants; petty robberies; and congestion, among other issues. In many instances, the municipality is unable to pay garbage collectors. Instead of there being any notable improvements, the landscape continues to deteriorate and the problems continue to worsen, and Government is often called upon to assist. In several beautification projects which the M&CC should have undertaken, it is the Office of the First Lady and the Government that are funding and executing these initiatives.
City Hall have a poor track record, which erodes public confidence in their ability to keep a commitment and use taxes efficiently to improve the city.
There have been several letter writers, commentators and politicians calling for a forensic audit to be carried out on the operations of City Hall. These calls continue to reverberate in the interest of transparency and accountability of public funds.
Such an audit is needed, as in addition to determining to what extent public funds are being expended in a transparent and efficient manner, it would also seek to examine the tax-collecting system to determine if the allegations of dishonesty, deficiency and discrepancies have any merit.
