Dear Editor,
I would like to be given space in your letters column, to congratulate most sincerely the former Chancellor of the Judiciary, the Honourable Cecil Kennard for his perspicacity, thoroughness, intellectual dexterity and expediency in carrying through with the much-needed Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the shenanigans at City Hall.

His task was not a simple one, as corruption, malfeasance, nepotism, slackness and incompetence are the order of the day at the Georgetown City Council. As dem boys would seh ‘If trousers say massah teef, yuh can’t doubt am’. To get an understanding of the magnitude of ineptitude, and lack of transparency and accountability at that institution, one will have to go back for more than a decade, during which time absolutely no audits were done, the payroll ballooned to well over 100 million per month with friends and family and Georgetown became a failed city.

One can only hope that now that the commissioners who will have to sit and review these recommendations and pronounce on them, will not only accept all of the recommendations, but would go even further into cleaning the Augean stables. It would be totally unacceptable for these delinquent officers to be given a ‘golden parachute’ and sent home, with all of their benefits or just given a slap on the wrist.

Not only should a clean sweep be made of all the errant officers but the councilors who signed the vouchers for all of these billions of dollars that were improperly spent, those who approved the hiring of hundreds of their kith and kin, and those of the senior officers, and even those councillors who flew around the world, committing the Council into shady deals in Panama, New York City and further afield. They should also be brought seriously to the books.

If we are genuine about the restoration of Georgetown, including the rehabilitation of City Hall, ridding the markets and the areas contiguous to them of the of daily crimes, or fixing the roads, the street lights, cleaning the drains, but more importantly of advancing our city to the elevated state of other capitals around the world, then City Hall has to be degutted and the intractable elements replaced by fresh, honest and talented individuals.

Where did evils like the corruption at the Georgetown Municipality arise from? It came from the never-ending greed of some senior officers and councillors. The fight for a corruption-free ethical capital will have to be fought against this greed, and replace it with a ‘what can I give’ spirit. Georgetown has to be run like a modern corporate entity and not continue with this level of mendicancy delinquency and venality.

The opportunity of the findings and recommendations of this CoI must be taken now to allow Georgetown to pick up the pieces and rise again, otherwise the citizens of Georgetown may be doomed to a future for our children and grandchildren that relegates them to living in underdevelopment for decades to come while the ‘big enchiladas’ at City Hall continue to line their pockets, and abuse the city of its resources for their own selfish ways.

Regards,
Modi Sankar