Should SOCU and SARA not be called in at City Hall? 

Dear Editor,
There is something seriously and fundamentally wrong with the accounting and financial management systems of the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown (M&CC), and it needs to be urgently and comprehensively addressed before the municipality is destroyed.
Even though it is clear that the elected Council is not in charge, as it should be; but rather just the Mayor, Finance Chairman, the Town Clerk, and a few other powerful Councillors, all will have to take the blame when the day of reckoning comes.
Almost every conceivable municipal fee has been jacked up, including a special fee which is being applied to both commercial and industrial waste, either solid or liquid; barbers and hairdressers’ licences; property rates (increased by 10 percent), certificate of compliance fees (increased by a whopping 750 %), the illegal container fee is to be increased, market stall rents have spiralled upwards, and in spite of all of this revenue increase, the city is more broke than ever.
All of this is because council maintains a massive and highly paid staff of over 800 employees, while at the same time retaining a huge cadre of extremely well-paid contractors.
Then there is the scandal of the council deducting National Insurance Scheme, Guyana Revenue Authority and Credit Union contributions from employees’ salaries but not paying these monies over to those entities, which is clearly a violation of the laws of Guyana. Should SOCU and SARA not be called in?
The Auditor General’s Office has been unable to audit the books for years, because of the disappearance of records, yet it is well known that the council is in a perpetual state of financial crisis, with no proper accountability or transparency for the billions of dollars it received and spent over the last three years.
The members of the Council’s Finance Committee seem to be operating in an ivory tower, approving massive expenditure for items that have not been tendered for or undergone competitive bidding, and without contracts being presented to full Council for examination and approval.
Then there is the big scam involving many persons who were granted amnesty, reductions or waivers on interest on rates and taxes owed to the council, but without the requisite approval being given.
Almost every citizen of our capital is aware that the City Council is being mismanaged. Flooding of our city is becoming a norm, due to the drains and canals not being cleaned, with some not being cleaned for years. Most of the municipality’s buildings are falling, including the main City Hall building, the city abattoir, and all of the markets. But who will bell the cat?
There must be a forensic audit of the Council done now, before everything collapses and disappears.

 Sincerely,
Mark Roopan