Dear Editor,
THE economic slowdown in the country has impacted every entity in Guyana, causing most businesses to make tough but necessary personnel decisions in all of their operations, including layoffs and redundancies.
Is it not time for the bankrupt Georgetown municipality to do the same and consider reducing overtime; freezing hiring; salary freezes; downsizing and layoffs; salary reductions; furloughs; temporary shutdowns of some of its sections; work-sharing arrangements; shortened work week or workdays; and eliminating training programmes, especially overseas ones?.
On a visit to any of the Council’s offices, one would see sections such as the Public Relations Section that has a large strength of cameramen, administrative and support staff, who idle all day long; or the Internal Audit Department with many persons just twiddling their thumbs as they say.
Let us face it, why does a purportedly cash-strapped municipality that is doing nothing positive for the citizens, need a public relations department? To write an occasional letter to the press and to host an insipid weekly television programme? The citizens don’t need a green washing tool, to just carry out acts of window dressing, they need a clean and healthy city. And having a large audit department in a municipality that has not had its accounts audited, qualified or presented to the citizenry for decades, is nothing short of a sick joke. Maybe these staff members of the Audit Department should be reclassified and sent after delinquent ratepayers. Rather than crying out each day and harassing persons each day for more revenue, the Council needs to simply cut its expenditure.
Regards,
Mateo Phelepe