Govt. halts parking meter deal until contract thoroughly inspected

- Bulkan

Jun 20, 2016 News, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....-thoroughly-inspecte

Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan has promised that Central Government will intervene in the ongoing parking meter fiasco at the Georgetown Mayor and City Council,(M&CC)  to ensure that  Guyanese get the best deal.

The Minister said that the Council will essentially have to put a hold on plans to implement parking meters, given the lack of transparency surrounding the transaction.

While the central government intervention in the matters of local government is not something that he would support, in light of the significant moral and financial implication of such a contract, the minister said that the Council is asked to stay their hand until greater clarity can be made on the initiative.

Bulkan, the Minister responsible for Local Government in Guyana, said after meeting with councilors who expressed their views on the issue, a request for the contract has been sent to Town Clerk, Royston King.

But the Minister is yet to receive the document, which was requested about a week ago.  Bulkan however expressed optimism that the Council will cooperate with Central Government.

“I don’t believe the Council would want to adopt a confrontational attitude towards the government. Besides, the deal can only be approved with the support of the entire council.”

The announcement of the parking meter project was made recently by M&CC’s Town Clerk, Royston King, who said that since November, the city had signed a contract with Smart City Solutions Inc,  a company collaborating National Parking Systems” (NPS) to install solar-powered parking meters in critical areas of  Georgetown.

The company is said to have invested tens of millions of dollars in preparatory works, including bringing engineers from its headquarters to determine traffic volume and occupancy.

Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan

Town Clerk Royston King

However, the issue made headlines after Deputy Mayor, Sherod Duncan, expressed misgivings about the two companies involved in the deal, saying he was not consulted and that he had little information to work with.

Duncan demanded answers, saying that his research could find little details about NPS, owned by Guyana-born Ifa Kamau Cush, and its partner, Smart City Solutions.

Additionally NPS, on its website, had claimed a Park Avenue, Manhattan address as its office but investigations by Kaieteur News found that no such office exists.

Duncan had noted, too, that there have been no public consultations on the introduction of parking meters, which are proposed to see drivers pay up to $500 per hour. The city is reportedly getting 20 percent of the fees.

It is unclear what criteria were used by King and his advisors to arrive at the 20 percent and what impact a parking meter system will have on the city.

Top city officials have since embarked on a trip to Mexico to learn about on a controversial trip even as members of the council continue to complain that they have not even seen the contract.

City Mayor, Patricia Chase-Green and Councillors, Oscar Clarke and Junior Garrett have all thrown their support behind the controversial deal saying that the Council needs the revenue.

The Town Clerk has since promised to hold a press conference to iron the issue.

Perhaps as usual in the PNC/AFC government, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

The Georgetown City Council must not become like the Jagdeo administration

Jun 20, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....gdeo-administration/

History has a way of repeating itself. The justification for some of the major projects made under the Jagdeo administration were that these  projects did not result in any financial exposure for the state, no government funds were  being held in equity and the projects would not add to the country’s national debt but would add economic benefits.

Strangely, this is exactly the same explanations that we are receiving today from the City Council of Georgetown in relation to the parking meter that the Council is proposing. The justification for the deal is that the council does not stand to lose (no exposure); it is not investing any money into the project (no equity) and that the project will not add to its indebtedness (no debt) but would instead provide a source of revenues for the cash-strapped council (economic benefits).

We have been thrown right back into the Jagdeo era by these explanations which do not address any of the major concerns that have been expressed over this arrangement of the parking meters.

There is the issue of due diligence. The City Council needs to state the checks that were done on the prospective companies that are involved in this deal. It needs to state also who conducted these checks on behalf of the Council.

The second issue is the issue of transparency. Why has the contract or Memorandum of Understanding not yet been made available to the full Council? Why was this deal not discussed with the full Council so that it could have received the blessings of the city’s fathers and mothers? Why also did this contract not go to public tender to ensure that the best deal available was on the table?

The third issue is the lack of consultation with the people of the City. The present Council is only a couple of months old. It has taken some image- building actions by cleaning- up the city. The sustainability of the works, however, has been called into question because weeds have  reappeared in the Le Repentir burial ground and in many of the drains since the last cleaning. The mosquitoes are once again swarming the city, many of the cleaned alleyways have not been maintained and there has been legal action halting some of the demolitions at Stabroek Square.

The Council clearly could not have cleaned Georgetown without the assistance of Central Government or the private sector. It has not yet indicated the total amount of money that was spent in the clean-up exercise and how much of this was obtained from donation from the private sector. These disclosures are important in the interest of transparency.

The lack of transparency is not much different also from what the government is doing in respect to the monies it received from private donors for the works at Durban Park. There has been no accounting to the nation for the monies spent and perhaps it is time that the media ask those companies which are suspected to have given monies to that project just how much was given.

The City Council has to indicate how much was received from private individuals for the clean- up exercise. It has to provide the list of the contractors paid to do the work. It has to respond openly to some of the criticisms and allegations that are being made. If there is nothing to hide, there should be no obstacle to disclosure, other than for the purposes of contractual confidentiality.

There is the issue of the legality of parking meters. The Council no doubt feels that it has the authority to charge these fees for parking and for containers in the city. It seems to feel that the law empowers it to institute parking fees and container taxes. Well if it always had the power to do so, why then did it not do so for the past twenty odd years? What was preventing it from doing what it is doing now?

If it does not need legislative changes to institute the parking meters and the container tax, then why did it not go ahead in the past with these revenue generating measures? If it does not need the consent of the Minister responsible for local government then why did it not go ahead with these taxes and fees under the PPP regime?

The final issue that needs to be addressed is the issue of the readiness of the public for parking meters. The Council did experiment with privatizing the East Street parking square. The area which was developed by the Jagdeo administration as free parking for people who have to go to the hospital was handed over to a private company to operate by City Hall even though the parking facility was developed with taxpayer’s monies.

The public has rebelled against that imposition and the parking lot is now a white elephant. It is not being used as it is supposed to be used because the people cannot afford to pay for parking in Guyana.

The Guyanese people are not yet ready for paid parking and for parking meters. The City Council is therefore risking its popularity by going ahead with a measure without adequate consultations with the people of Guyana.

This ironically was the main problem that most Guyanese had with the PPPC. The PPPC was moving too fast to do things too big that  a country that was not  comfortable with the transparency with what was being done.

The City Council must not become like the PPPC regime. It must show that it is different because we are in a different time. Are we?

Dem boys seh…Soulja Bai mash up de parking meter deal

Jun 20, 2016 Dem Boys Seh, Features / Columnists, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....-parking-meter-deal/

Before de week out nuff people dun either disappear or dem gun holler.

Some of dem crying already because when you tek people money and you don’t deliver is nuff trouble. Mr Park King was behaving like if he own de city.

And dem boys seh that dem get to understand why Patricia Chase Green.

He woulda call a council meeting and discuss de parking meter before he cut any deal. But Park King didn’t do that. He cut de deal and get Patricia to join wid him before she keep de council meeting.

De Sherod boy talk till he get blue. He complain how de council didn’t know nutten. Then he see a posse go to Mexico. Somebody had to pay fuh that trip.

Well Soulja Bai get de furniture minister to cut up de runnings because there was no consultation. Somebody got to get back dem money. Dem boys expect people fuh talk and dem waiting to report.

Of course, dem boys already set up a space in de paper to tek complain and dem willing to bet that de people who was setting up de meter gun be de first to complain. Dem gun talk about who and who dem give money and who pay fuh de trip to Mexico.

Dem boys expect Ann de Yellow to complain too. She did park a lady but de story is something else. She seh that she teaching de lady de wuk because this same lady was not doing any wuk. A judge complain how de lady was not going to court to represent dem abused children. Another lady seh that she never use to see de lady in she office. She use to deh driving around looking fuh something.  And that is only part of de story.

But she ain’t de only person wid a story. In fact, nuff people got story.

Jagdeo got a story bout he chandelier wha he promise to sell to de Waterfalls boss man fuh US$20,000. But he was only bluffing.

Dem boys gun talk more about that.

Talk half and wait fuh hear de parking meter scandal.

Today's Stabroek News

Parking meters to come on stream Sept 1

– Mayor says contract kept private for fear investment would be stolen

Really Ms. Green???  By whom????  This has to be a joke right???

Bibi Haniffa posted:

Today's Stabroek News

Parking meters to come on stream Sept 1

– Mayor says contract kept private for fear investment would be stolen

By

Staff Writer

June 21, 2016

 

Really Ms. Green???  By whom????  This has to be a joke right???

Joking tar....s this deal reeks with corruption,waiting response from Granger and Bulkan.

They already deposited their bribes in Foreign Accounts.

Nehru posted:

They already deposited their bribes in Foreign Accounts.

The PNC boys learn fast from the PPP boys.  LOL.  Tief catch tief mek god laugh.

Django posted:

Bibi Haniffa posted:

Today's Stabroek News

Parking meters to come on stream Sept 1

– Mayor says contract kept private for fear investment would be stolen

By

Staff Writer

June 21, 2016

 

Really Ms. Green???  By whom????  This has to be a joke right???

Joking tar....s this deal reeks with corruption,waiting response from Granger and Bulkan.

Keep waiting Bhai.  How many 45 gallon Snakeoil yuh gat left over.

Perhaps the response from David Granger might be .... "Errr, hmmm, errrrr, ohhhhh, etc., etc., etc.."