SOME members of the Georgetown Mayor & City Council (M&CC) argued, on Monday, that its 2011 budget has not been approved, contrary to what Town Clerk Yonnette Pluck reported at the last statutory meeting.
She had said the Council gave its approval and it was, subsequently, submitted to Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Mr. Kellawan Lall, who wrote approving the estimates.
But Councillor Ranwell Jordan said there is no documentation to support the statement that the budget was presented.
Councillor Patricia Chase-Green asked: “How could the Town Clerk sit there and say the budget was approved? The Council has not approved the budget that was sent to the Minister.”
Chase-Green said a meeting was called by Chairman of the Implementation Committee, Mr. Keith Burrowes at ‘De Impeccable Banquet Hall’ (Brickdam) in March to discuss aspects of the budget and that forum facilitated objections by councillors who were given the opportunity to voice their dissatisfaction with certain things in the financial proposals.
Chase-Green said, however, that many changes were made subsequent to that occasion but they never went back to the Council for final approval.
She said, by law, the budget is supposed to be read publicly to councillors and the fact it was not approved by Council is unfair to citizens and staff.
Mayor Hamilton Green concurred that the budget was subjected to corrections and he was assured, by Chairman of the Finance Committee and Deputy Mayor Robert Williams that the adjustments were made and a letter sent to the Local Government Minister.
Major discrepancies in the proposed $2.7 billion budget have resulted in a delay of its presentation, Public Relations Officer Royston King told this newspaper recently.
He said the estimates were supposed to have been presented since early March.