Dear Editor,
It seems as though each and every time I have reason to visit the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri — either to travel in or out of Guyana, or to receive or send off relatives or friends — I always observe one or more of City Hall’s ‘fantastic four’ members either travelling out to, or arriving from, some overseas destination.
It is always quite a spectacle, with their entourages, including security detail, chauffeurs and other underlings, following the ‘Queen of the City’, who parades in her customary loud costume bling, and the ‘King of the City’, strutting around with his inflated ego.
The question to be asked is: how is it that these municipal officials have the time to be jaunting so frequently overseas when Georgetown is beset by so many problems? Should they not be spending their time with their boots on the ground in the various wards of the city, solving the garbage crises, the drainage problems, fixing the pot holes in the roads, eradicating the mosquito infestation, repairing and replacing the defective street lights, etc.?
And should they not be reporting to the citizenry the purpose of these visits, and the results and/or benefits to the city and its inhabitants? Or do they feel no sense of accountability or answerability?
But the biggest question is: how could the city afford all of the hotel accommodation, meals and out-of-pocket allowances that are doled out each time these persons proceed on these junkets? Should this money not be used to pay the Council’s overdraft at the bank? The more than 300 million owed to the garbage contractors? The money owed to the GPL, GWI, GRA and NIS?
In this era of lightning speed internet, online shopping, teleconferencing, social media, etc, it is time that these municipal junkets be brought to an end, and the money wasted on them be used to buy brush cutters to weed the parapets; to procure captive bolt pistols to humanely slaughter the animals; to purchase proper uniforms for the Constabulary; to purchase garbage trucks, material to fix broken bridges around the city, etc.
It is time that the squander mania at City Hall be brought to an immediate end. Let us have the long outstanding audit.
Sincerely,
James Mc Onnell
