Dear Editor,
Why is it so difficult for the ‘Big Enchiladas’ at City Hall to understand that you cannot earn one dollar a day while spending two dollars? It is just not sustainable.
It is not rocket science; if you are a private individual and you spend more than you earn, you will go bankrupt.
If you are a company and your expenditure outstrips your income, you will go insolvent before long, so how does City Hall expect to earn just about 70 million per month while just one item of its expenditure, its payroll, is over 125 million?
While companies, municipalities and governments are downsizing all over the world, while entities right here in Guyana are practising fiscal restraint, the Georgetown municipality is seemingly on a spending splurge. Is this not just irrational or duplicitous?
Why was it necessary to upgrade their Personnel Section into a large independent Human Resource Department, with huge staff upgrades, and hiring of a number of persons to senior positions, costing the City millions more per month?
Why is it necessary to have a Public Relations Section with a large staff strength, again costing citizens millions per month whilst owing the garbage contractors who provide a much more vital service, over 3000 million dollars?
Why do the senior officials need bodyguards, chauffeurs, messengers, two and three deputies, special assistants and a retinue of other personal staffers?
But the biggest question of all is why does City Hall, after maintaining a mammoth staff strength of a thousand workers, still have to contract out most of its services albeit without adherence to established tender and procurement procedures?
Why does the Council have to pay for overseas calls, cellular phones and services, fuel for officers’ vehicles and guards at their residences, for fancy lunches and dinners at posh restaurants, etc.
Why do they have to travel around the world, first class, with assistants in tow regularly with no visible or tangible returns to the citizenry?
The Council insists on living a champagne lifestyle on a mauby budget. It just won’t work.
Sincerely,
Mark Roopan
