Citizens have to be determined to make City Hall listen

Dear Editor,
The frequent outbursts of lack of financial resources by those at the helm of the City Council are indeed clever attempts aimed at excusing themselves from culpability for the Council’s failure to provide the services it is required to deliver to citizens in return for the rates and taxes they pay. Furthermore, there is an obvious lack of interest on the part of the Council in going after the huge debt of some citizens in respect of unpaid rates and taxes, estimated at some billion including accumulated interest as at December 31, 2016.
Consider if the Council made every possible effort and was able to recoup even 50 per cent of that debt. To the contrary, even the amnesty offered to debtors does not attract the desired positive results which one would expect such offers to attract. This speaks volumes with respect to the proactiveness of the City Council’s Debt Recovery Unit. If this is not damaging enough to the image the Council projects as the largest municipality in our country; even that which is collected is poorly managed.
Those at the helm of the Council appear to be interested primarily in those matters and measures in which members have a personal interest; for example, rates write-off and generous settlements of debts of comrades; contracting out services while scores of workers remain redundant or underutilised; instead of applying the competitive bidding process for procurement of goods and services.
The issue of increasing revenue base and so making more resources available to the Georgetown City Council cannot be considered independent of the present performance of the Council, where issues of accountability are concerned. Access to more resources must be based, inter alia, on service delivery and overall performance including transparency and accountability for resources already at the disposal of Council. The latter’s present operations are shrouded in corruption, incompetence and arrogance. Furthermore, one must be mindful about supporting any measure that introduces increased costs and brings more hardship to citizens; for example, the proposed Parking Meter Project.
Many reports of vendors paying City Constables (the latter are not authorised to collect revenue) and no receipts being issued often go uninvestigated; while the Council has been losing millions perennially through corruption of some revenue collectors. In short, it would appear that significant amounts of dollars of revenue collected by City Hall officials from vendors do not find its way into the Council’s coffers.
A significant amount of market revenue collected is used to meet employment costs of the City Council and this includes scores of inactive and underutilised Council staff. Very little of market revenue is expended on maintaining or improving or expanding market infrastructure; or, what is even more desirable, providing additional market infrastructure and so address the roadside vending and concomitant sanitation and other environment challenges occasioned by illegal vending.
Going after revenue (public funds) is understandable as the City Council could not provide the services the citizens require and expect without finances. Accounting to citizens for the public funds is also an obvious expectation and so also is Council’s engagements with citizens to provide information/updates with respect to the plans, expectations, work in progress as per Council’s work programme. Regrettably this did not happen in the case of the Council’s Parking Meters Project. The City Council has not been listening to the voice of the people. In fact, the Council has not been availing itself to engage the people. The result has been a show of strength/ the populace force by the citizens. They have determined that they will make City Hall and the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change Government listen to them and address their concerns.
Consultation, inclusiveness and accountability must replace the corruption, incompetence and arrogance that have been so evident in the work of the Council; moreso, among the triumvirate of the Council … its Mayor, head of Finance Committee and the Town Clerk.

Sincerely,
Norman Whittaker
Former Local
Govt Minister