IN response to comments made by Clement Rohee, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), over the deplorable conditions of the Le Repentir Cemetery, Mayor Hamilton Green contends that the recent allocation of $56M to the City Council is insufficient to restore the capital city.

However, Rohee told the Guyana Chronicle that his comments are reflective of a “miscreant’s” actions.
In a letter yesterday, the mayor said: “The three vital ingredients needed for the success of any venture or institution such as a city, are money, manpower and management. None are available to the elected Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown – compliments of the government.”
He also maintains that some $335M, at a minimum, is needed to: rehabilitate our maternal and child welfare facility; desilt the Sussex Street Canal and do minimum revetment works; desilt the Cane View Avenue Canal; desilt the Downer Canal; and to rehabilitate the Cemetery.

Green said: “This excludes lighting, the replanting of trees and repairing of tombs – these are only a portion of things to be done if we are to restore the city.”
Rohee made it clear that works in these areas are being done by central Government.
“The mayor needs to get off his haunches and get people to pay their rates and taxes, rather than sitting down and waiting to be spoon-fed by the central Government,” he said.
The General Secretary added that other fund-raising initiatives can also support the work programme outlined by the mayor in his letter.
Rohee pointed out too that central Government’s support cannot be doubted, as in the last seven years over $330M has been given to the City Council – in addition to the rates and taxes being paid by the citizens of Georgetown.
The Mayor and the City Council have continually been criticised for the state of the capital – a criticism centred on the contention that the current state of Georgetown is a consequence of neglect.
The resignations of the Council’s officials have been called for by the ruling party and the establishment of an Interim Management Committee (IMC) recommended to correct the “failures” of the City Council.
Due process for the establishment of an IMC involves a petition being made to the Local Government Ministry, which will then launch an inquiry and have the outcomes presented at a public meeting before it acts on the recommendations of the inquiry’s report.

(By Vanessa Narine)