Poor financial management leads to late 2024 budget at City Hall – Councillors

Addressing what they described as poor financial management by City Hall’s administration, People’s Progressive Party Councillors have expressed concern over several issues at City Hall causing the entity not to be able to present a draft of the 2024 budget.
This was one of the issues discussed at the final statutory meeting for the year, held last week.
“Once again, we see a big relapse with M&CC budget even after presenting a late 2023 budget. City Hall now finds itself being delayed to present a draft of the 2024 budget which was expected to be presented since November 15, 2023. City Hall has been controlled by the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)/A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), for the longest time since the party holds a majority of seats at council, while the PPP only takes up eleven seats,” Councillor Ashby Odayson told this publication.

Odayson, a PPP/C Councillor, added that work cannot continue to be delayed because of APNU’s Councillors’ behaviour.
“What we continue to witness in City Hall is a complete mismanagement from administration and leadership. As it is, we’re going into 2024 and City Hall have not yet presented the draft of the 2024 budget,” Ashby stated, noting that only a few months ago the 2023 Budget was present by APNU Councillors.
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has control of the Finance Committee, which is chaired by Lelon Saul and other (APNU) Councillors Tahirih Adams, Troy Garraway, Clayton Hinds and Yvonne Ferguson and Don Singh being the only People’s Progressive Party/Civic member. While no audit of City Hall has been done for the past decade, this continues to be a major concern for the PPP/C Councillors.
Meanwhile, Odayson underscored that they have raised concerns about the budget and other issues at City Hall meetings on numerous occasions but to no avail.

He added that City Hall has no accurate asset register, whilst calling on the city’s Mayor, Alfred Mentor, to immediately address this matter.
“The Mayor needs to meet directly with his administration and make decisions if the council keep operating in this manner,” Odayson emphasised.
Meanwhile, Alfonso De Amas, who is also a PPP Councillor, highlighted that the financial management of the city must be addressed with urgency.
While dismissing the narrative that Government is playing politics with city council, he said: “We are ready to work with all parties involved in order to move forward because we know it’s for the betterment of the city.”
According to the Councillors, recommendations will continue to be made regarding the poor management of funds at City Hall since Central Government is being relied on for bailout each year.
Meanwhile, the continued lack of essential financial record-keeping, the Councillors said, calls into question the M&CC’s capability to responsibly manage resources. Additionally, the prolonged absence of audited statements emphasises the serious issues at City Hall. The last M&CC budget was in excess of $2B