Dear Editor,
Well finally and gradually the veil of secrecy that has covered the corruption, nepotism, mismanagement and other wrongdoings at City Hall is being lifted. And it seems that persons are now running “helter skelter” dashing for cover whilst pointing fingers at each other. This is popularly known as ‘passing the buck’.
But this is just the beginning, the very surface of the cesspool that is the Georgetown City Hall. As the Commission of Inquiry delves a little deeper, it will confound the citizenry what will be revealed from the fiscal malfeasance, to the nepotism in the human resources, to the wastage of the property rates, to the featherbedding among its ranks.
But listening to Royston King and Patricia Chase Green, one gets the impression that they have long lost touch with reality.
Here is a newsflash for these two: the City Hall is at its lowest ebb in its history, the coffers are empty, the debts to the contractors, utility companies, the Guyana Revenue Authority, the National Insurance Scheme and insurance are piling up, the City Hall building is on the verge of falling to the ground, the markets are filled with giant rats in addition to the collapse of one of its wharves, the city is filled with mosquitoes, the drains are all clogged, the roads are bad and the street lighting poor, multiple robberies are occurring unchallenged in the city every day while they have just concluded a massive anniversary celebrations.
Their old mantra, which is a complete falsehood, is that the revenue base of the Council is too small, that the Council does not have money, which means therefore that they could not mismanage what they do not have and like Scrooge, they are very thrifty, stretching Council’s dollars to the limit to meet all of the municipality’s financial commitments. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If King and Chase Green really held the earnest view that the capital city was so penurious, why did they travel around the world so many times first class in the last three years on joy rides? Why then did they give out so many enormous contracts to their relatives and friends? Why did they bump the monthly payroll up to well over $100 million with some persons earning hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars each, per month?
No sane administrator would maintain a workforce of close to a 1000 persons, while at the same time farming out to private contractors, most of the municipal services it provides, unless he or she had a pecuniary interest in the contracts that were being given out in violation of tender board procedures, while at the same time having a consanguinity with the many staffers that are padding the payroll.
Suddenly, the almighty and powerful King is whining that it is the City Treasurer who is the one that is responsible for managing the City’s finances and not him. Oh really? What an epiphany? Could someone remind King and Chase Green that the buck stops at them as Harry S Truman would say?
Regards,
Kwasi Sanderson
