…King says ‘staggering’ of payments each month necessary

THE administration of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), headed by Town Clerk Royston King, continues to refuse to do a ‘manpower audit’ at the municipality despite lamenting that revenues being garnered each month are not adequate to cover even the salaries bill.

The M&CC currently has more than 800 staff members and 250 pensioners, bringing the monthly payroll to $112M.  At Monday’s statutory meeting, King reported that between $70 to 80M a month is being collected monthly in rates and taxes. He gave this as the reason the municipality must continue to “stagger” payments to its workers each month.

While November salaries were due since last Friday, the M&CC only managed to pay scales 1 and 2 last Monday, and promised to pay the rest of workers by Friday.  King said the financial situation is dire at the municipality, especially as the number of pensioners is increasing. He said City Hall also owes retroactive money to workers for two years.  Councillor Bishram Kuppen pointed out that the M&CC recently hired several additional recruits and questioned why the municipality would do so in view of the fact that employment money alone is more than what the municipality is taking in.

“Are we ever going to see the manpower audit presented to this council? How are we going to know if people are gainfully employed here?” questioned Kuppen.  Just last week, scores of M&CC workers protested the non-payment of their October salaries, along with the practice by City Hall of deducting money monthly for the credit unions, National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), but not pay them over to the different agencies.

Guyana Local Government Officer Union President Wendy De Cunha, told the Chronicle that the non-remittances of the various sums have been going on for some months now, resulting in the workers being unable to receive any benefits and obtain loans from the unions. “That is unlawful,” she said.

Councillor Sherod Duncan, who laid flat on his back in front of City Hall’s gate, cheered on by many, had chanted: “They touring and we hungry. We fed up. Bad management. The town clerk must go; put in someone fit and proper.” Other placards bore the words: “Pay our Credit Unions. We need loans”, “No money, no work”, “We want money now” and “Respect your human resources assets, they are important.”

Protesters also chanted: “We fed up of the same thing over and over” and one worker said: “Courts ringing down my phone all the time; they even calling my mother.” Meanwhile, in an effort to curb the financial crisis at the municipality, a 100 per cent amnesty on general rates is being offered from November 15 to December 15, 2017.

“Currently, more than 50 per cent of ratepayers have not honoured their obligations to the Council. This has resulted in a shortfall in revenue collection. This shortfall has severely affected the Council’s ability to provide critical services in several areas, including the cleaning and desilting of drains and canals, repair of roads, provision of street lights and payment of monthly remuneration to its staff,” City Hall said in a statement.