Just a few days ago, the issue regarding the operations of City Hall and the need for accountability made headlines again. The newly-appointed Local Government and Regional Development Minister 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.
As it stands, the iconic City Hall structure has become an eyesore, and it would be no surprise if it crumbles in the near future. The Georgetown municipality has been cash-strapped for many years – mostly linked to lack of transparency and mismanagement of funds – and certainly would not have the kind of resources needed to carry out the restoration project.
The Restoration Fund was therefore established for this purpose. It is a fund to which members of the public and businesses would donate monies towards rehabilitation of the 19th-century building. There was much optimism when the idea was first mooted, and everyone was looking forward to completion of the project.
At time of the first study, done by the European Union several years ago, the project was pegged at $400 million; but, to date, that amount has increased to more than $1 billion. This publication understands that later, $65 million was also provided over one year ago for the construction of an administrative building, but according to the new Minister, only a building design plan has been drafted.
While we are not accusing anyone of corrupt practices or anything of that sort, City Hall in itself has done very little to convince the public it is serious about ensuring that public funds are accounted for in a transparent and efficient manner. To date, the City’s administration has not been very forthcoming in regard to its present financial state of affairs.
On his part, the Local Government Minister has accused City Hall of “gross incompetence and mismanagement”. According to the Minister, the only thing that has been done in a year – despite $65 million being provided to City Hall to construct the admin building – was a design review of the structure that ought to be built. He said information would have to be provided on whether City Hall has expended those resources on other things, or whether the resources are being held in escrow.
It could be recalled, also, that the M&CC and the then 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 had been 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.
In the past, several letter writers, commentators and politicians had called for a forensic audit to be carried out into 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, the audit would examine the tax collecting system, to determine if the allegations of dishonesty, deficiency, and discrepancies have any merit.
It could be recalled that when the APNU/AFC Coalition took office in 2015, there was a keen interest in carrying out forensic audits into the operation of several state agencies, more particularly during the tenure of the then PPP Administration. However, the City Council went untouched. The mere fact that millions of taxpayers’ dollars are regularly used to bail out the City from its financial woes is enough reason for the Administration to act in the public’s interest. The Government certainly cannot keep pumping taxpayers’ dollars into the operations of City Hall without putting the necessary safeguards in place to ensure public monies are accounted for.
