Dear Editor,
THE recent disclosure by the Mayor of Georgetown that he, along with his deputy and a small team from City Hall, successfully renegotiated the terms to which they will engage the solid waste contractors, thereby bringing down the monthly charges from a whopping $32M to a manageable $14M speaks volumes about City Hall.

First, it shows a keen understanding by these two gentlemen of the negotiating process. It shows creativity, courage, and good judgment; but, most of all, it shows their considerable honesty. They should be congratulated by each citizen for saving the City some $18M per month, which could be diverted to other critical municipal services.

Indeed, I admire the concept of cutting expenditure rather than just seeking to rake in more and more revenue by taxing the citizens out of their minds, like his predecessors did, burdening citizens with container taxes, increased property rates, market fees etc. What he needs to do now is to continue cutting costs, by halving that bloated staff structure the Council has, which costs them well over $100M per month, theby reducing the nearly 1000- strong workforce by closing down some of the useless departments of the municipality such as the Human Resources Department and the Public Relations Division and sending home the friends and family, church pals and paramours of ‘the big ones’ there who have been heavily feather-bedding the Council over the last four years.
But the flip side to this incredible negotiation is the unwitting exposure to the public of the high level of debauchery, depravity, iniquity, profligacy, graft and corruption that has been occurring within the Georgetown Municipality over the last four years. Eighteen million by 12 months by four years totals close to one billion dollars. Where did this money go! Just as overpayment to the contractors?

This spectacular negotiation reminds me of when the Council renegotiation committee and Smart City Solutions (SCS) reached an agreement to slash the parking fee from an enormous $500 per hour to $150 per hour, VAT-inclusive, to park in Georgetown. Mind you, SCS would have still made a profit at $150 per hour, so it is logical to assume that the extra 350 per hour, per car would have greased a lot of wheels to keep the machine turning smoothly. Someone at City Hall should negotiate our country’s future oil contract awards.

Regards,
Sean Levius