CLEARLY exasperated with the latest garbage disposal crisis swamping City Hall, President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday signalled that the government has no alternative but to help out a “visionless City Council.” “We will have to continue to help,” he told reporters, adding that the relevant Cabinet ministers have been told to be as helpful as possible.“…but we are just tired of this sort of nitpicking and lack of focus” in City Hall, he said at a press conference at the Office of the President complex.

quote: `…just cutting the grass becomes a major rocket science task for the City Council’

Garbage has been piling up in some sections of the city because contracted collection companies owed monies have stopped services.
President Jagdeo pointed out that the government has spent billions of dollars in maintaining the city — fixing roads, cleaning parapets, paying to collect garbage, cleaning canals, putting in new drainage pumps, digging outfalls and other projects.
The city cannot be neglected, and an important section of the population lives in the capital, he stated, adding that “often what happens in the city is a reflection of what’s taking place in the country.”
Mr. Jagdeo pointed to the construction boom in the city, and said there has been an “explosion in requests for permits for new buildings.”
It is a growing city, with the private sector putting up better, nicer buildings and more modern facilities, but unfortunately, this is not matched by the vision within City Hall to meet this growth, he said.
He deplored the constant squabbling at City Hall, where he said council meetings are dominated by quarrels over matters like overseas trips and who allowed stalls to be built on roadsides. It’s never “about this new modern city that we need to all work towards,” the President charged.
He said “little things” can be done to improve the city. “If we cut the grass and remove some of the garbage, the city will look different; but a simple thing as just cutting the grass becomes a major rocket science task for the City Council,” he said.
President Jagdeo said if local government elections are not held before the end of the year, citizens in Georgetown face being saddled with the same “visionless council” for another year-and-half because the polls will not be held until 2012, after general elections next year.
“…but we will have to continue helping. There’s no alternative,” he said.
He said that waste management is the council’s obligation, but the government is spending more than US$10M building a waste disposal facility for the city, “because we recognise they simply won’t do it.”
The modern site is scheduled to be open for use later this year at Haags Bosch, East Bank Demerara.
Mayor Hamilton Green this week admitted that a major problem was the failure to recoup funds.
He told a statutory meeting of the City Council, on Tuesday, that no institution can run without money and at least three dozen entities have not paid taxes.
Mr. Green was adamant that a significant amount of delinquent taxpayers in the capital are government-owned properties, from which no revenue owed was received for the second and third quarters of this year.
He said efforts to contact the Minster of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, have failed.