November 22, 2016 Source
No $600M bailout for city – Bulkan
Communities Minister, Ronald Bulkan said Government will not provide a $600M “bailout” for City Hall. GINA said. The money that the Georgetown municipality has sought is to assist the cash-strapped town to meet expenses and pay creditors.
Bulkan said Government will not bailout the municipality. The Minister was speaking at an engagement with the Mayors and Councillors of the three municipalities in Berbice on Friday, GINA said.
“This $600M bailout that we all have read about in the newspapers, where that particular council is looking for that support, what I can say…and from my own understanding and the limited current engagement that I have had with colleagues in the administration, is that, I do not think that there is any appetite on the part on the central government to be favourably disposed towards that request,” Bulkan said.
The Communities Minister said that what may occur instead is that Central Government may encourage City Hall to seek commercial sources of financing. “The response of central government may very well be along the lines of telling the Municipality to think like a corporation, so I believe the Georgetown council would be encouraged, that there are commercial sources that they can approach,” Bulkan said.
The Mayor and Councillors of Georgetown, at a recent statutory meeting, had passed a motion for the council to assemble a delegation to approach the Communities Minister for a $600M bailout.
During the meeting in Berbice, the councillors had raised the concern that Georgetown seems to be the only council enjoying the largesse of central government.
