…Councillors thinking of seeking government assistance
WORKERS at the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) would again not be paid in a timely fashion for the month of June, City Treasurer Andrew Meredith reported Monday.
Meredith was speaking at the Council’s fortnightly statutory meeting at City Hall subsequent to which a motion was moved by Councillor Junior Garrett and seconded by Patricia Chase-Green to have the Council approach central government for assistance.
Majority of the Councillors were in support of the motion as they could not see how the Council would manage to rake in the amount of money necessary to cover its outstanding expenses.
A number of contractors attended the meeting on Monday for the purpose of finding out when they would be paid the amounts owed to them. They complained that they were not paid any money for the past six months.
Councillor Ranwell Jordan yesterday told this newspaper that he was particularly in favour of the motion because monies owed by the Council are still outstanding to Guyana Telephone and Telephone (GT&T) and other business entities.
He said money to pay workers and businesses would not come in by June month-end, and the need to approach government for some kind of subvention.
A number of municipality workers took home no salaries for May and the City Treasurer had said that, unless ‘there occurs a drastic change’, this situation could go on for months.
He related that some workers could not be paid for May due to the financial constraints plaguing the municipality.
At present, the municipality owes some $120M to the Guyana Revenue Authority and the National Insurance Scheme.
Councillor Garrett had remarked at a recent statutory meeting 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 overtime 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.