City Hall’s motion to pay former staff $30M

Dear Editor,
I was gobsmacked when I learnt via the press recently that a motion had purportedly been moved by the Mayor of Georgetown, and supported by a particular group of Councillors, for an officer formerly employed by the Georgetown Municipality, who was dishonourably discharged for several breaches in procurement, accounting and management at the City Council, to be paid what is described as outstanding sums within 72 hours.
Mind you, this is no petty cash being referred to, but rather a whopping $30 million, and is being demanded by the very Mayor who, just a few weeks before, boldly announced that the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) owed the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) between $400 and $500 million in unremitted Pay As You Earn (PAYE) income tax deductions that the municipality took out of its employees’ salaries but failed to pay over to the revenue collection agency.
That act is a clear violation of the laws of Guyana, and he seemed upset by court action that was threatened against the M&CC.
Additionally, the very Mayor has, over time, been pointing to hundreds of millions being owed to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) and the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), along with monies owed for pension, gratuity and other benefits to other employees, but which he seems in no hurry to remit.
This is in the midst of the Georgetown Municipality failing to submit audited and qualified financials for decades, and the Office of the Auditor General recently reporting having quite a difficult time making sure public funds were properly spent, including amounts totalling $374.545 million that were provided by the then Ministry of Communities.
To make matters worse, or, as they say here in Guyana, to add insult to injury, the very officer for whom the Mayor is demanding this urgent payout, and some of the very Councillors who are supporting it, were in large measure responsible for the dire circumstances in which Guyana now finds itself; and that is: being confronted with a US$100 million lawsuit through a botched and controversial parking meter deal. And I mean US$100 million!
It is just unimaginable that, with Georgetown being in its current sorry state and often being described as cash-strapped, the Mayor would seemingly be in such a hurry to have this former official paid before the life of this Council comes to an end; that is: to have the payout of more than thirty million dollars made to a dismissed officer whose track record is well known to all and sundry.
Can the citizens of Georgetown ever look forward to a better day in their Garden City?

Sincerely,
Anu Bihari