PRESIDENTIAL Advisor on Governance, Ms. Gail Teixeira said, Wednesday, that the incompetence of the Mayor of Georgetown, Mr. Hamilton Green and the Municipality to deliver basic services to the citizens, particularly garbage collection, is an area of great concern to the Government. She made the damning declaration at a post-Cabinet media briefing, at Office of the President, where she was substituting for the absent Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPSP), Dr. Roger Luncheon.
Teixeira said, in light of the current situation, a public health risk assessment will be conducted, as the city continues to suffer from yet another garbage crisis.
“The unacceptable garbage build-up and the inability of the Mayor and City Council, historically, to address this basic service was noted. The Cabinet noted the mismanagement of the Mayor and City Council under Hamilton Green’s leadership and that we are of the view that a radical change is needed in order to ensure that the citizens are provided with decent services,” she said.
Teixeira recalled that the Administration has had to bail out the M&CC on several occasions in the interest of the health of citizens, while that the Council had no problem in awarding its workers stipends or increasing the staff complement despite their repetitive complaints of inadequate funds to provide services.
She charged that, what is of even more concern is that the very Council, which is complaining of “inadequate funds” to provide basic services is asking for increases in stipends.
“Cabinet noted that the M&CC had no problem giving themselves an increase in their stipends or an increase to their staff, despite their repetitive song about inadequate funds to collect garbage and to address other services to the citizens,” Teixeira stated.
Alluding to steps which will be taken to address this situation, she said: “Cabinet noted the mismanagement of resources at the Mayor and City Council under Mayor Green’s leadership and is of the view that a radical change is needed to ensure that the citizens are provided with decent services. Government reaffirmed its continued desire to address the concerns of the citizens of the city and that it would do all that is possible to ensure that local government elections are held in 2012,”

Risks posed
Teixeira said Government has charged the Ministries of Local Government and Regional Development and Health to look into the state of Georgetown and its environs with regards to the risks posed to the citizens.
Addressing the claim, by the M&CC,  that the Local Government Ministers are impinging on the Council’s autonomy, she maintained that the Ministers’ role in Georgetown has not been any different from that in the other five municipalities, as provided for by law.   
Minister within the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Mr. Norman Whittaker, on Tuesday, told the Government Information Agency (GINA) that, even though this municipality received a subvention of $20M, the highest amount among the six municipalities, Government has had to inject an additional sum of about $135M, last year, to bail out the Council which is constantly drowning in debt.
He observed that, while the City Council tries to project to the public that the reason why it is not delivering is because of inadequacy of funding and that the revenue base is too narrow, the fact remains that a significant amount of the revenue collected by the Council goes towards covering employment costs, including heavy overtime and the payment of incentives which is done without the requisite permission or authority. 
Council is paying about $2M as incentives for doing work that was already contracted and it has drafted a proposal for salary increases of 33 1/3 percent for councilors and eight percent for other workers, Whittaker maintained.
He said: “When you are not delivering the services which you should be delivering and you are heavily indebted (the City Council owes over $100M in statutory deductions for workers PAYE and NIS), how could you want such a high increase…we will not support this.”