COUNCILLOR Junior Garrett has moved a motion at City Hall, seeking Government’s intervention in form of a “bail out” for the municipality in the form of $600M.

Most of the City Councillors voted on Monday in favour of this motion, and as a result, a delegation will present the motion to the Ministry of Communities by November 16.

The money is to be used, inter alia, to assist in clearing City Hall’s debts to its garbage contractors; help with payment of wages and salaries; prepare the City for Prince Harry’s visit; and for additional works that have to be done in time for the Christmas season.

Mayor Patricia Chase-Green has said she would have no difficulty if the Communities Ministry prefers to pay the bills instead of physically handing over the money to City Council.

The only councillor who opposed the motion was Mr. Roopnarine Persaud, who offered that he does not wish to go to the Government with a ‘begging bowl’, as he believes the municipality has more than enough resources to run itself.

“When we go forward with the right plan and the right attitude, we won’t have to be going back to Government over and over and over again. We just had $300M; we spent it out. We are spending like a drunken sailor just arriving in Jamaica; like a pirate.

“As soon as we get the money, we (go) wild! Within one month, we have everybody coming here and lining up for money. We put ourselves in a weak position when we have to go to Central Government,” Persaud argued.

He added: “If I was Central Government, I (would) give no money. We cannot keep going and begging; we have to collect the monies that are rightfully due to us.”

Observing that City Council was in a crisis position at the moment, Councillor Alfred Mentore said that if Government granted the money, it should be used for all of the intended purposes. He referred to the Auditor General’s (AG) Report that recently cited several discrepancies at City Hall, and urged the City’s administration to spend the money specifically on the purposes for which it was requested.

The AG Report had noted that after a total of 212 payment vouchers were examined, a number of discrepancies were found, including that there were 167 instances when there was no evidence that payment vouchers — totalling $159.968M –- had been certified by the accountant or any other authorised officer.

Further, approval by the City Treasurer was not seen on 140 payment vouchers, totalling $143.682M; and there was also no evidence of the Finance Committee approving 58 payments, totalling 48.404M; and likewise, there was no evidence of receipt or payee acknowledgement for a payment of $750,000 to a contractor via cheque #164407587.

Councillor Andrea Marks offered that a “bogus system” currently operates at City Hall, and there is no proper way of knowing how much revenue is being garnered from vendors. She said the revenue collectors are “doing their own thing” on the job, issuing receipts whenever and to whomever they feel like.

Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan had recently complained that the M&CC loses millions of dollars in revenue on a monthly basis because a proper system for collection is not in place.

Revenue collectors have, over and over again, come in for criticism regarding the way they operate — demanding bribes in many instances. For the year so far, there have been several incidents in which the officers were accused and pointed out for the said practice.

Meanwhile, other councillors — Gregory Fraser, Heston Bostwick, Linda Gomes-Haley, Sophia Whyte, Noelle Chow-Chee, and Welton Clarke, among others — all spoke in favour of approaching the Government for help.