Jagdeo slams City Council for failure to recover $6.5B PNC/R debt

General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, hasslammed the Mayor and City Council for its lack of responsibility in pursuing the $6.5 billion in debt that is owed by the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R).

His remarks came during a press conference on Thursday at Freedom House, and amid the industrial strike called by the City’s workers following the Mayor and PNC Councillors’ decision to disallow salary increases due to insufficient financial resources.
However, according to Jagdeo, the council has access to a massive potential revenue source that could be used to meet the needs of its workers and fund development projects, but it has refused to recover these resources.
“They keep diverting the issue, every time it’s raised, to the Government’s support for the city,” he expressed.
According to the DPI news release, Jagdeo stressed that Government’s support for Georgetown has been significant, since nearly all developmental works have been taken over by the Central Government, whereas the works were supposed to be the city council’s responsibility.

In fact, he said, a number of infrastructural projects – such as roads, drainage systems, recreational facilities, and green spaces – are being implemented in the city to the tune of billions of dollars.
Despite this, the City Council continues to highlight the issue of Government support, avoiding its own accountability, he pointed out.
The DPI report noted that Jagdeo went on to state that the substantial debt of $6.4 billion arose from an assessment conducted by the City Council, including a demand letter for a company owned by the PNC/R.
“For the many, many years, it never paid taxes to the City Council for the entire massive property that they have at Congress Place. They owe 6.4 billion dollars now. They would not pay it, and the City Council will not go after them, yet they will say to the workers there that they don’t have a source of revenue to pay them,” he pointed out.
Jagdeo highlighted that if the Council were serious about revenue generation, they would be demanding that the substantial debt be paid. Instead, he said, the Council has been renting city-owned properties to the PNC at extremely low rates, for as little as $100,000 per year, despite their value.
He called on City Councillors to push for accountability, and demand action to recover this significant revenue source. He believes the financial struggles can be alleviated once the money is collected.