GEORGETOWN Mayor Ubraj Narine has decided against going on an official trip to China with his deputy Alfred Mentore, citing the fact that he is unwilling to leave his duties at the City Council at the current time.

Former Mayor Patricia Chase-Green, along with Chairman of the Finance Committee Oscar Clarke and former Town Clerk Royston King, had often been criticised in the past for undertaking overseas trips at times when the City Council was struggling financially.
“I’m not willing to leave my work and go that distance,” Mayor Narine told the City Council on Monday when it met for its fortnightly statutory meeting.

According to him, since provision was made for two persons to go on the trip, being funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), he was looking to see if a councillor could go with Mentore.
However, the IDB indicated that the event only caters to mayors and deputy mayors. As such, Mentore will be going alone.

The deputy mayor offered that since the one-week trip is being fully financed by the IDB, not a cent will be spent from the council’s coffers.
Councillors who were not in agreement with foreign travels in the past, due to the financial constraints of the municipality, had often pointed out that the council did not receive any tangible benefits from such overseas trips.

But the then mayor had said that since the airfare and other expenses were usually not paid for by the M&CC, it was unfair for councillors to make such remarks.
Former Mayor Sherod Duncan, when Chase-Green, former Town Clerk Royston King and others went to China in the past, had held a placard at a protest, bearing the words: “Mayor and town clerk touring, workers starving.”

The councillor and others took umbrage at the fact that at a time when the M&CC was struggling to pay its workers and garbage contractors, US$25 of council’s money was being paid per day to each of the five members who travelled overseas.

Chase-Green had said that she received the invitation to go to China and that it was her decision to choose whom she wanted to accompany her on the trip. Those accompanying her were King; Chairman of the Finance Committee Oscar Clarke; City Engineer Colvern Venture and Councillor Carolyn Caesar-Murray.