Parking in Georgetown now reduced to $200 an hour – Cush

Kamau Cush, the Director of Smart City Solutions – the company contracted by the Mayor and City Council to install parking meters in Georgetown – has announced that upon installation, the parking meters will charge 0 per hour.

Kamau Cush
Kamau Cush30

This announcement was made on Tuesday during a parking meter consultation session held in the conference room of the National Library.

According to Cush, this new figure of $200 for every hour of parking along the streets of Georgetown has “gained universal acceptance.” Prior to this reduced fee, it was reported in the media that the company was seeking to solicit $500 per hour of parking; a figure that did not resonate well with the populace after it was announced. Speaking on behalf of Cush, media personality Mondale Smith highlighted that “special arrangements” will be made with regard to parking in specific areas along the streets of the capital city.

“Based upon where you will park, there are special arrangements for that,” Smith said.

During the early part of June 2016, Cush shared with media operatives that 3000 spaces would be allocated for parking, with a parking meter attached to every 10 spaces, so a total of 300 parking meters would be installed in busy areas around the City. He had said that the meters would hold a charge of $125 every 15 minutes, allowing an expected yearly income of approximately $100-$200 million.

However, according to Smith, who was speaking with visible agreement from Cush at the consultation session on Tuesday, there has never been mention of $500 per hour being contemplated.

“We don’t know how $500 an hour came about but it made its rounds in the media. The Mayor afterwards made it categorical that $500 was never on the negotiation table for parking meters. The Town Clerk iterated that $500 was never on the table,” Smith asserted.

However, during an interview with the Mayor of Georgetown, Patricia Chase Green on Monday, she mentioned that during the Attorney General’s review of the contract for the parking meters, recommendations were made with regard to the rate being charged by the parking meters.

Chase Green also told Guyana Times that the report which was submitted to be reviewed stated the parking meter fee as $500 an hour, adding that this cost was to be reduced.

“There are some issues; we talked about – the pricing because the report went with the $500 an hour. There is to be discussions of a reduction,” she had stated.

Over the past few months, the parking meter contract has come under fire from all sections of the public, but the Government has reassured stakeholders that it has found nothing illegal in the contract which was signed with Smart City Solutions Inc.

But the Ministry of Finance, who was also tasked with reviewing the contract and providing Cabinet with a report, had outlined with respect to the financial implications of the contract that “Government procurement practices may have been violated, in that a tender was not advertised and bids were reviewed for acceptance based on certain criteria and as such justifies a revoking of the contract by Government and the re-tendering.” According to the report from the Finance Ministry, “there are grounds for the contract to be withdrawn and the related damages assessed and paid subject to M&CC producing a feasibility study that provides the national government a clear picture of the demand analysis, financial analysis, socio-economic cost benefit analysis, risk analysis, technological alternatives and production plan, human resources, location plan and implementation.”

The Ministry’s report also unearthed that the concessions granted under the contract were monopolistic in nature since it blocked any form of local competition for the duration of the 49 years of the contract life. Transparency International Guyana Inc (TIGI) is of the opinion that the deal is shrouded in unaccountability and ambiguity.

“TIGI is of the view that the handling of the parking meter project by the Georgetown Municipality and its response to relevant queries exhibit a dearth of democratic principles and disdain for citizens that would lead to a feeling of exclusion, and alienation from the decision-making process. These failures serve as a strong contradiction to the purpose of local government,” TIGI President Troy Thomas had said in a recent statement. He said there was no open tendering for the project and there was “handpicking” of a contractor and Councillors to conduct due diligence in Mexico. “This was perhaps necessary as it was a fool’s errand from the onset against the backdrop of an already signed contract, which positioned it in the interest of the Mayor to find the firm suitable or even exceeding the requirements,” he added.

Thomas stated that there ought to be transparency and accountability in the operations of local government and the views of the people must be respected. He contended that the project being allowed to continue in its current state despite a legal basis for enacting a new and transparent process was a telling blow to “transparency, accountability and good governance”.