Justifiable calls for an IMC
THE calls of Local Government and Regional Development Minister, Mr Norman Whittaker, and the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party for the introduction of an Interim Management Committee at the Georgetown City Council are being echoed by Guyanese throughout the country, and in the wider Guyanese Diaspora.The PPP recently expressed their concern over the state of affairs at the Georgetown City Council and recent acts of illegality perpetrated against the administrative branch of the M&CC.
The party further noted the attempts by Georgetown Mayor, Mr. Hamilton Green and his cabal to oust the legitimate and legally appointed Town Clerk, Ms. Carol Sooba from office, via illegal and backdoor manipulations.
Minister Whittaker noted that his ministry is guided by the Cabinet, and asserted that if and when the decision to have an Interim Management Committee as a replacement at City Hall is carried by Cabinet, the ministry will concur.
The ruling party, in a statement released earlier this week, condemned the act of desperation by the Mayor and his cabal, who, according to the PPP General Secretary, have brought the City Council into disrepute by their actions which smack of “racism and political bullyism.”
The PPP, therefore, demanded the removal of Hamilton Green and the entire City Council and their being replaced by an Interim Management Committee to foster hope for a better run City Hall.
Green has, over the last few months, transgressed in a multiplicity of ways in actions inimical to the welfare of the city, and has been severely condemned after he sabotaged the revenue collection on Easter Monday; illegally removed the keys of a motor vehicle on the said day; illegally appointed PRO Royston King as Town Clerk among other infringements.
King, too, has been delinquent after he allegedly signed City Hall tax waivers as Town Clerk before illegally assuming the post of Town Clerk, both fraudulent acts punishable by the laws of the land.
But while the Mayor and his minions are fiddling away at their own lewd music, the capital city is drowning, literally and figuratively, in filth. For decades, quite apart from the taxes, in which the Burrowes Commission of Inquiry and consultant Ramon Gaskin discovered massive discrepancies and outright acts of fraud, the Government has been pouring billions of dollars into City Hall in hard cash and resources, with everything seemingly falling into a bottomless pit.
New garbage trucks and other equipment are provided, and they break down within months, a phenomenon that has been ascribed to parts being exchanged with worn-out rejects, and the new ones sold to private contractors. So, the new trucks and other equipment are parked and become white elephants.
The massive and widespread acts of theft and fraud from the city, such as the one King recently perpetrated by signing off waivers to the tune of billions of dollars — most probably with substantial rewards of cash or kind — and the absolutely ill-managed affairs of the city has kept the municipality in the red for decades, with employees of the city many times denied their salaries until a bail-out by the Government.
Today, Town Clerk (ag), Ms. Carol Sooba, has scuttled most of the avenues for thefts, and for the first time, city workers are receiving their salaries in a timely manner. So, no wonder Hamilton Green and his cabal at City Hall are desperate to eject Ms. Sooba from her current position, and install someone who would be amenable to the continuation of the irregularities and mismanagement of the municipality.
In 1994, the newly-elected PPP/C Government ejected just such “a bunch of rascals,” as described by Dr. Cheddi Jagan, and appointed an Interim Management Committee, which comprised Chairman, Dr. Rose, and a membership among whom were Bert Carter and Bish Panday, mere months before Local Government Elections.
Within those few months, the city assumed a new look, with the Augean stables in Georgetown being cleaned for the first time in decades, and the city left in the black, a phenomenon not experienced ever since the PNC took control of City Hall.
Today, the beautiful structure left to Guyanese by the colonials is a decaying sore on the city landscape, and replicates the filth overwhelming the natural beauty of what was once called “The Garden City”. Georgetown is truly reflective of a microcosm of the capital city of Guyana under the stewardship of the PNC.
If the PPP/C Government could do it, then it could certainly do it now: Install an Interim Committee to clean up the city and its affairs, and rid City Hall of the vermin that are undermining the effective management of the affairs of the Georgetown municipality.
This current City Council’s term in office has been up long since, and whether there are local-government elections or not, they are illegally occupying the offices of the Mayor and Councillors of the city, and should be booted out forthwith.
extracted from the Guyana Chronicle
