WITH expenditure exceeding the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown’s revenue for the past eight months, City Treasurer Andrew Meredith said yesterday that workers will again not be paid in a timely fashion this month.
Meredith’s remarks came at the Council’s fortnightly statutory meeting at City Hall following a request by Deputy Mayor of Georgetown Robert Williams to have the financial state of the municipality discussed.
Declaring his reason for bringing up the issue, Williams stated that the Council is behind in payments to the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL), the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), among other institutions.
Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green lauded Williams’ request for the discussion regarding it as appropriate at present. The Council may not even be aware of the “capriciousness” of the situation, he said.
Before the City Treasurer was permitted to make his presentation, Councillor Junior Garrett said in effect that the discussion would prove futile as the Council does not have a reconciled cash book balance.
Nevertheless, Meredith remarked that the municipality is almost $100M behind as of August last, with $35M outstanding to ‘Pay As You Earn’ (PAYE) taxes, and $24M to NIS. On average, the rate of collection since last July is $115M, while the rate of expenditure has been $128M per month. “Money is never enough to pay salaries, [garbage] contractors, and to provide machinery. This is the position every month,” Meredith remarked.
The $100M, he explained, is the difference between the revenue that went into the Council and its expenditure, which is without addressing garbage contractors in a timely manner and completing necessary tasks to satisfy heads of departments.
In last June and July, the only thing the Council managed to do was pay salaries, Meredith disclosed. If all the bills were to be paid last January, the amount would add up to $246M, $169M for February and $131M for March, he said.
Meredith opined that no one should be alarmed over the municipality’s current financial position as it has been in this state for the longest while.
However, he is of the view that the municipality should not continue being unable to pay NIS and PAYE.
Hence, “harsh decisions” must be made and expenditure must be cut down, he remarked.
Councillor Garrett rejoined that for the first eight months of 2010, a meager 62 ½ percent of the Council’s budgeted figure was collected, that is $880M, with a shortfall of $580M.
“Our position is very, very dim,” Garrett said, adding that money has to be raised from one source or another.
Councillor Patricia Chase-Green said the Council encounters a salary problem in every year and that she was not concerned with politics, but with how M&CC’s Administration is being run.
Chase-Green argued against the municipality having a full component of staff while being unable to render necessary services because of a lack of tools.
Councillor Premchand Dass questioned the reason money is being deducted for NIS and PAYE but is not being paid to the appropriate institutions. “Where is the money going?” he asked.