IN LIGHT OF concerns raised in some quarters about the work of the Implementation Committee in the wake of the findings of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) led by Mr. Keith Burrowes, the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) felt obliged to issue the following statement, detailing what has been accomplished to date:
The Mayor and City Council wishes to address extant concerns within the public sphere concerning the work of the Implementation Committee (IC). It is now common knowledge that the successful implementation of many of the recommendations contained in the Burrowes Report-Commission of Inquiry (CoI), Volumes 1-3, required new and/or extensive modifications to the M&CC financial, technical and support systems. In short, it would be practical to say the Council needed support in all areas.
After the Commission of Inquiry report was presented to the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as to the MCC, the recommendations made in the report were unanimously agreed on. It was also very clear to the M&CC that we did not possess the necessary skills and knowledge required to implement most of these recommendations and would therefore require a fair amount of assistance in completing these tasks.
As a result, an Implementation Committee was appointed, under the chairmanship of Mr. Keith Burrowes, to assist the Council to implement the recommendations. The Committee has since enlisted the voluntary services of a number of professional and technical personnel with the requisite competencies to assist the Council in the implementation of the recommendations of the CoI.
The IC is assisting the municipality in all areas of its core and non-core responsibilities to the citizenry of Georgetown. A lot of work has been done throughout the departments and service delivery areas within City Hall. The assistance given involves technical support, human resources support, IT support and support with equipment and supplies.
The City Treasurer’s Department (CTD) is one of the main focal areas that has benefitted and continue to benefit from the work of the IC. The Treasurer’s department has profited from the implementation of a financial accounting package (at no cost to the M&CC), that now allows the council to post daily general ledger updates among a number of other system changes in this department. Some of the changes include a new Chart of Accounts (CoA) which never existed prior to IC’s intervention. A Petty cash system, voucher, bank reconciliation and bank deposit systems, and new modules have been put in place for payables/receivables so tracking of these aspects of the accounting system is easily and readily available, a new procedure/policy has also been established in dealing with the issuance of staff loans. The new accounting system has allowed the CTD more timely and accurate reporting and forecasting for their finances, and the CTD has been able to bring most of their accounting schedules up to date and continue to work on completing this exercise.
Linked to the Treasurer’s department are the interventions of the Information Technology unit which mainly involved the creation of a ‘Client Information Database’ by the IC, again at no cost to the council. The program allows several departments for the first time to view all client information (taxpayers). The system generates reports which allow the M&CC to determine in which areas or departments an ordinary citizen owes taxes/fees to the city of Georgetown. The system has been implemented in two (2) departments namely the CTD and the Markets Department, where once the operations have been fully integrated into the Council’s day to day work, the system will be rolled out to all other departments.
Also linked to revenue generation, the IC is currently in the process of establishing a Debt Recovery Unit (DRU). As part of the establishment of the unit a Debt Recovery manual was created outlining the policies and procedures which should be followed in the collection and retrieval of rates and taxes from the citizenry. Added to this, a standard ‘Legal Proceedings Form’ has also been implemented. This form captures bio-data of the ratepayer and the property information when engaging defaulters. With respect to the capacity building of the DRU, officers have been seconded to work along with the M&CC Legal Department in identifying, extracting a consolidated list of defaulters and to verify the owners of the properties in assisting the Council in pursuit of defaulters for the payment of outstanding taxes. This assistance allows council to sanction individuals and companies which default on their responsibility and has resulted in increased revenue generation. The IC has also established a database (“Compliance Certification Database”) to capture properties within Georgetown which has changed ownership. The main purpose of the database is to monitor the compliance fees which should be paid as part of the change of ownership process. The system allows the council to arrest the slippages where persons avoid paying the requisite and compliance fees before the property changes ownership. Further to the assistance given to the Legal department and the Treasurer’s department members of the IC have also played mediating roles between the M&CC and other organizations with regards to settling legal disputes outside of the courts. This has been very successful and has in turn generated revenue for the municipality, at times in the excess of tens of millions of dollars.
The Information Technology department has also benefited tremendously from the support given by the IC. Expert advice has been given to the department along with a review of the current systems in place with relevant recommendations made. A computer server has been loaned to that department for the period June 2010 to November 2010. This has enabled the department to manage its users, databases, storage etc. a lot more efficiently than in the pass. Though the server has been loaned to the M&CC, the IC has also made recommendations to assist the IT department in procuring a server for the M&CC to utilize in a similar capacity. A number of computers, printers and other IT equipment has also been given to several departments within the M&CC, which has been a boost to the efficient day to day operations of those departments (such as the CTD, the Town Clerk’s department, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor’s department just to name a few). The departments were able to receive these facilities through support from the private sector which was coordinated by the chairman of the Implementation Committee.
The Solid Waste department has also been given assistance by the private sector with regards to the loan of tractors to facilitate the safe collection and disposal of refuge during the period when the garbage contractors were on strike. Also in anticipating future repetition of strikes on the part of the contractors, the IC has established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in dealing with such scenarios.
The IC has provided significant contributions to the Human Resources support in many areas within City Hall. Steps have been taken to provide the true costs of the core services provided by the Council.  One supporting initiative is the capacity building of City Hall personnel in cost-benefit analysis, which should rectify the situation wherein the Council spends upwards of 800 percent of the real cost of some of its services as compared to commercial services.
Training sessions and/or workshops have been conducted to have personnel  better understand the systems in which they work, the importance of their commitment and support to the organization has been stressed time and time again along with general training for employees in their area(s) of work. The M&CC with the aid of the IC is now looking and setting up a full fledge HR Database which will capture all the relevant bio data along with background information, progression of employees within the organization, and if needed, they will also be able to run a payroll system integrated into the programme.
The IC has sponsored the formulation of an Internal Controls and Compliance Manual encompassing basic SOP’s coming out of the CoI report. This manual is designed to improve productivity and efficiency while lifting the image of City Hall. It will result in cost savings and improved revenue collection, interdepartmental relationships and cooperation. A monthly performance monitoring tool has been developed specifically for the departments to keep abreast with the M&CC’s 2010 budget document and allow for better controls over the organizations revenue expenditure.
The interventions by the Implementation Committee outside of assisting in the implementation of the recommendations of the CoI, general focus, has been aimed at improving efficiencies, reducing costs and subsequently improved revenue savings/generation. Though the council is not in a position to evaluate the Implementation Committee’s assistance to us in a monetary manner, we anticipate within a couple of months we will be able to equate these changes to a dollar value. The matrix below provides examples of the benefits to be derived from the intervention of the Implementation Committee with regards to the implementation of the recommendations made in the Commission of Inquiry report.