ACTING Chairman of the Finance Committee at the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC), Mr. Junior Garrett, is in the process of fine-tuning the municipality’s budget for 2012 that is expected to be available to the public by Friday.
Garrett informed the Chronicle at the Council’s Statutory Meeting at City Hall yesterday that the budget will be presented to the council at a special meeting tomorrow and then to the public by Friday.
Councillor Patricia Chase-Green told this publication that tomorrow’s meeting will see the budget being discussed and accepted by the council. She said from her understanding, no more workers will be employed, and efforts will be made to restructure the organization.
According to Chase-Green, the budget will focus on the municipal markets and the City Constabulary Department, which, at present, is currently in a deplorable state with regard to staffing.
Councillor Garrett had said last week that the M&CC’s budget would have been presented to the council for approval at yesterday’s statutory meeting.
He said the procedure is for the proposals to be sent to the council first then to the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development.
Garrett had previously promised to have the municipal budget ready by January 31. But Minister within the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Mr. Norman Whittaker, told the Guyana Chronicle recently that the Council has not yet submitted its budget to the ministry.
“They keep shifting the timeline for delivery,” he said, adding that the ministry last heard that the budget would be presented in two or three weeks’ time.
Meanwhile, Deputy Town Clerk, Sharon Harry-Munroe had informed a City Hall press conference that the municipality did not necessarily have to present its budgetary proposals to the Local Government Ministry.
However, Garrett had subsequently confirmed that it is supposed to be handed to the ministry by November 15 of the preceding year.
“This Council has prepared such a budget, but from my financial experience, that was not properly done,” he said, when undertaking to have it done this year in accordance with “accepted accounting principles and practices.”
Underscoring the importance of information being made available by the Treasury Department on requested, Garrett said, “Over the years, I had refused to get involved in the preparation of the budget, because there were always distortions in the financial information that was used as source.
“I intend to have a hands-on position where preparation of the budget is concerned and, apart from this, there will be other financial documents which are used in business entities to manage the monthly funds of the Council,” he said.
Presently, Garrett said, about 60 percent of the funds received at City Hall go towards administrative expenses and the remainder to pay for core services in the city. The country’s other five municipalities had submitted their proposals to the ministry on time, and Local Government Minister, Ganga Persaud recently told the media that he is hoping for a surprise from the M&CC this year.