THE Municipality of Georgetown had up to yesterday failed to submit its 2013 programme for subventions from Central Government.

Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Mr. Ganga Persaud made this disclosure while refuting   allegations by Mayor Hamilton Green contained in a letter published in the Stabroek News of June 28,2013, captioned: “Local Government Minister’s statements is a tissue of untruths”.
Commenting on the letter, Persaud charged that Mayor Green is operating in “a time warp when illegality and incompetence governed this country.”
He said that contrary to allegations in the letter, the Central Government had paid up all rates and taxes due to the City Council for the first two quarters of 2013.
He said that the time lag between when he made the statement that monies had been paid and when it was actually paid was due to the time taken in  processing the release of the payments.
He said that the Government of Guyana does not owe the City Council any money for the first two quarters of 2013.
He said too that he had never suggested that the City Council had not submitted its Budget for 2013, and in fact he acknowledged that the Council had done so.
“What I was talking about is its programme for Government subventions for 2013. To date, in this seventh month of the year, they have failed to submit that programme.”
Minister Persaud also chided the Mayor for insinuating that he had been involved in a scandal, involving millions of taxpayers dollars for the printing of law books.
He said that in keeping with a process of accountability by the Government, he as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Legal Affairs had admitted to a procedural error in that matter. He had made a mistake and had paid a fine of $500,000 for that error.
“No IDB money was spent or misspent by me. Not a single cent of taxpayers money was expended during the entire matter. The contract was nullified at no expense to the people of Guyana,” the local government minister said.
Persaud added: “That is the level of accountability which this Government insists on. Green, who was among those who led this country down the path of destruction, has no moral authority to lecture anybody on accountability.”
He charged too that it is a ludicrous assertion in the Mayor’s letter to claim that the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development was spending $900 million a month on super salaries.
“The wages bill for this Ministry for 2013 is approximately $1.4Bn. If we were spending $900 million a month on salaries as the Mayor is alleging our budgeted amount would be finished in less than two months.” He said that this distortion was another attempt by the Mayor at mischief and misinformation.
He said that statements that the Town Clerk Carol Sooba was not qualified for the job was nothing new.  And he questioned whether the Mayor and Councillors were so much more qualified, why is it they are doing such a miserable job of managing the Georgetown Municipality.
He said that what his ministry had seen of the Municipality of Georgetown under the leadership of Ms. Sooba was a dedicated and committed effort in seeking to regularise and put proper systems of accountability and transparency in place.
He said that government hoped that more and more workers of the City Council would recognise that the citizens of Georgetown were depending on them to do their jobs so that all could co-exist in peace, love and harmony.
“That is my call to all the stakeholders in this city,” he concluded.