A number of workers at the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) took home no salaries for last month and City Treasurer Andrew Meredith yesterday remarked that, unless ‘there occurs a drastic change’, this situation could go on for months.
Meredith was speaking at the Council’s fortnightly statutory meeting at City Hall and he related that some workers could not be paid for May due to the financial constraints plaguing the municipality.
Payments were made to some of the banking institutions to which workers are affiliated, but no money has been released to the major institution, Republic Bank.
According to Meredith, the wages and salaries bill could not be paid in its entirety as the Council only managed to garner 50 percent of revenue, which represented $40M. “The salaries bill is a challenging one,” he said, adding that council’s liabilities at the end of April amounted to $988M.
Meredith said the situation is not far from that experienced every three months in connection with payments to garbage contractors. The Council often finds itself in a predicament of not being able to pay the contractors in a timely fashion.
At present, the municipality owes some $120M to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
Meredith was called upon for an explanation of the Council’s financial position at present, following a request by Councillor Junior Garrett to have the standing orders suspended. The request was granted by Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green, who asked to be excused approximately one hour after the meeting commenced and was replaced as chairman by Councillor Llewellyn John.
Following Meredith’s presentation, Councillor Garrett remarked that the financial situation of the council could be avoided with proper management of resources. He charged that liabilities are often incurred without the knowledge of the City Treasurer and that there needs to be a reduction in over-time costs and telephone bills.
Garrett disclosed, he saw a telephone bill for a shocking $1.2M and called for an analysis of the telephone calls between January and May. He made an open and statutory request to be supplied with the bills. Even if he is not provided with the bills, he said the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) will certainly provide him with the information.
In September last, Meredith reported to the Council that the municipality was almost $100M behind as of August last, with $35M outstanding to ‘Pay As You Earn’ (PAYE) taxes, and $24M to National Insurance. On average, the rate of collection since last July was $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,” he had lamented.
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 June and July of 2010, the only thing the Council managed to do was pay salaries, Meredith disclosed. If all the bills were to be paid in January 2010, 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.