City Hall is not broke – GT Mayor claims

Mayor of the Georgetown City Council Alfred Mentore has responded to reports of the Council being broke, refuting it as a ‘fallacy’ and adding that they have been able to honour financial obligations.
During a broadcast interview on Thursday, the Georgetown Mayor noted that they have been in a better financial position as opposed to a few years ago, when there were major shortcomings in paying staffers and contractors.
His comments came after the first statutory meeting earlier this week to deal with the Council’s financial position and the auditing of the Council’s assets.
“It’s not true. The Council has been paying its debts. We all know in the last four to five years, we haven’t had a host of people lining up in front of the Council saying they’re not getting paid, either at the staff level or contractors. We haven’t had those challenges. We have been honouring our obligations,” he disclosed.
City Hall has been labelled as cash-strapped on several occasions and has relied on Central Government to provide a bailout to provide critical services. However, Mentore opined that if the 40 per cent of delinquent taxpayers were to pay their dues, the local organ would be in a better position.
“Of that 40 per cent, a lot of it happens to be ordinary citizens that live within the city of Georgetown. We will be working with those persons.”
According to the Mayor, Council’s asset register has also been an issue for many years and must be weeded out. In fact, there has only been partial audits over the past years, owing to the lack of the asset register. The Council has made about 70 per cent progress in getting this up to par.
He added, “I strongly believe that it’s not our doing. It’s an administrative issue that has to be addressed and sorted out. We’ve made significant strides in remedying this issue. I believe that from what the Town Clerk said, we’re about 70 per cent of where we need to be in relation to that…The asset register is necessary in order for you to produce a balance sheet. It is one of those things that has been affecting us and we want to address this.”
Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh disclosed in June that in the 2021 Auditor General’s (AG) report, page 95 states that the last time financial statements were audited for the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown was in 2004.
The Auditor General also highlighted that he had not received financial statements for a number of years, including 2020 and 2021.
In addition, the Special Audit Report of the Auditor General for the years 2019 and 2020, sent in April 2022 to Town Clerk, Candace Nelson stated, “Financial statements were submitted for the year 2018 and 2019. However, they were subsequently returned to M&CC on 27 August 2021 for non-compliance with International Accounting Standards.”
In fact, Minister Singh shared a breakdown of the backing provided by the PPP/C Government to support to the citizens of Georgetown. During the period 2020 to 2022, the Government expended over $6 billion to construct and rehabilitate roads in Georgetown.
Between 2020 and 2022, the Government expended $155 million to reconstruct and rehabilitate bridges, $1 billion to enhance the Old Railway Embankment, $1.6 billion on enhancement works along Independence Boulevard, Cemetery Road, and internal roads, Albouystown, Georgetown; and $250 million on enhancement works along Kingston Seawall.
Between 2021 and 2022, the Administration also expended $678 million to operate and maintain the main drainage system in the municipality and $600 million to upgrade the water transmission lines in Georgetown. It also stood the cost of $510 million for solid waste management. (G12)