Dear Editor,
Of recent, a topical issue has been the estimated $700,000 that is being spent on food every time the National Assembly meets, which means almost $80 million would have been spent in the next three years on food alone for the National Assembly and Committee Meetings.
And one can understand the concern, when ordinary persons are struggling to put food on their tables to feed their families.
But one has to understand that it is not at the National Assembly alone that this dietary extravagance exists, it also exists at the Georgetown Municipality. Now, at City Hall, which claims to be in dire financial straits, there seems to be a meeting held every day of the week.
Apart from their fortnightly statutory meetings, there exists a plenitude of sub-committees, which achieve very little, as their recommendations have to go to the full statutory meeting, where they are debated all over again before approval.
Then there are the ad hoc committees, such as the parking meter negotiating and renegotiating committees, anniversary planning committees, among a host of others, all for which snacks and meals are provided to cater for them to devour.
And meals and drinks are not only provided to the City Councillors, but also to the plethora of staff members who are required to sit through these meetings.
They can even be seen carting away boxes of food apart from consuming their share.
We’re reminded by the Georgetown City Council of the immensely popular song titled Hotel California, which was created by the legendary group Eagles, the lyrics of which went like this:
“Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said ‘We are all just prisoners here, of our own device’
And in the master’s chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can’t kill the beast
Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
‘Relax,’ said the night man,
‘We are programmed to receive.
You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave …”
Citizens need to keep a tab on City Hall’s food bill also.
