Jun 14, 2016 Source

A company that has been chosen to introduce parking meters in the city is starting off with question marks. The Mayor and City Councillors (M&CC) of Georgetownremaining divided over the issue.

The company, “National Parking Systems” (NPS) is collaborating with another one-Smart City Solution- to install solar-powered parking meters in critical areas in Georgetown.However, there is critically little information available about NPS and its partner.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.
Deputy Mayor, Sherod Duncan, has already expressed misgivings about the two companies saying he was not consulted and that he had little information to work with.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. That company has invested tens of millions of dollars in preparatory works, including bringing engineers from its headquarters to determine traffic volume and occupancy, M&CC said.
It was announced yesterday at an M&CC meeting, that Mayor, Patricia Chase-Green; Town Clerk, Royston King and Councillors, Junior Garrett, and Oscar Clarke, have travelled to Mexico to speak with the parking meter authorities there.
NPS itself seems to have very little information known.Its listed address on its website, www.npsgreatcities.com, is 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016.
A staffer of Kaieteur News yesterday paid a visit to the building where that address is located. It is in a very upscale part of Manhattan where the rent is extremely high. The building that NPS claims as its address rents office space.
In the lobby area, officials there were very emphatic that no company named National Parking Systems has an office there.“We don’t know if they plan to come here in the future…but we don’t know any company of that name.”
There is no website that could be found relating to Smart City Solutions Inc., the company that NPS and its Chairman, Ifa Kamau Cush, is partnering with.
Rather, the website www.npsgreatcities.com seemed as if it copied wholesale from others. There were a number of glaring examples of this.
Regarding the project of parking meters for the city, NPS website merely said it conducted a feasibility study and determined that an on-street parking control system comprising state-of-the art, multi-space parking meters will generate an independent revenue stream, enabling the city to fulfill its obligations to the citizens of Georgetown.
“The City of Georgetown contracted NPS to own and operate the on-street parking project. Revenues for the City Of Georgetown will increase by over 200 per cent within the first year of operations of the on-street parking project.”
Recently, the Town Clerk said in a statement that the M&CC has “determined” that Astrolobe Technologies, which was competing with NPS and its partner for the parking meter project, lacks both the human and technological competencies to install and manage parking meters in the city of Georgetown.
“Moreover, in the opinion of the City’s officials, not only will Astrolobe prove to be a risk to the city’s economic and financial stability, but because it appears that Astrolobe will, at best, be experimenting with public parking, the safety of citizens could be compromised.”King, who is now in Mexico with the Mayor, was batting heavily for NPS and its partner. He praised the company’s track record which could not immediately found on the search engines.
“The council is aware that Smart City Solutions Inc is the largest operator of municipal on-street metered parking in Latin America, the Caribbean and South America. The company has supplied Panama with parking meters, equipment and accessories for over two decades, while also pioneering the service in Mexico City, the seventh most populated city in the Americas, where it has been in operation for over five years, managing some 20,000 parking spaces.”
King insisted in his statement on June 9, that M&CC has been meeting with various stake-holders to provide information on this new parking system.
Indeed, there is little information also about Cush whose experience appears to be more in the media field than in the parking meter business. Suffice it to say that he is Guyanese.
Regarding, “Smart City Solutions”, even the sitting Deputy Mayor, Sherod Duncan, who chaired the statutory meeting yesterday, was mystified about the company.
“Additionally, in my independent research on Simon Moshevilli who represents “Smart City Solutions”, I have found no one with the said name connected with the said company. Additionally, there is no evidence that such a company actually exists,” he said in his Facebook posting Saturday night.
“Research however show a “Simon D. Mosheshvili” as a Director of a company called ‘Movilot’ which operates in places like Panama and Haiti. Its website says, “Movilot is a leading “DBO” (Design-Build-Operate) Technology firm providing turnkey solutions to the mobile lottery and mobile gaming markets.”
He said that there is a total lack of verifiable information on the company and its capacity to execute the scope of the project and the absence of a contract on the proposed project, “I cannot offer my support and reaffirm my grave reservation of such a venture.”