THE Mayor and City Council (M&CC) on Friday afternoon approved a $2.5B surplus budget for the first time in more than 20 years, which will focus primarily on public health, solid waste, and works within the realm of the City Engineer’s Department.
“As the mayor, I wouldn’t pass a deficit budget; not at all,” Mayor Ubraj Narine told the Guyana Chronicle following the passing of the draft estimates at an extraordinary statutory meeting at City Hall.
The 2019 budget could not have been presented by last year November, as is required by the laws governing the municipality due to a number of factors. The council ran into Local Government Elections, a Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of City Hall, and the installation of a new Council and subsequent Finance Committee.
Initially, when budget talks began last year August, the Council was looking at a $700M deficit budget, which was eventually reduced to $45.6M based on certain modifications. However, the council was able to remove completely the deficit with further amendments, and now in fact has a $5M surplus budget.
“We were able to remove the deficit completely because we were able to access funds from Central Government during the Ghana presidential visit to do works. So during that visit, works that we had proposed to do via the budget, we were able to do them with the government subvention we received,” Chairman of the Finance Committee, Oscar Clarke, told this publication in an invited comment.
Clarke does not fancy speaking with reporters but made an exception on Friday because he said he was happy that for the first time since he joined the City Council in 1996, a surplus budget was passed.
“What we sought to do in this budget was to ensure that the various expenditure proposals were carefully scrutinised so that we can ensure they were as realistic as possible,” Clarke explained, as he reflected how expenditure was simply added in without any real thought in previous budgets.
At Friday’s meeting, the council agreed to reduce the cost for maintenance for roads and streets from 30M to 20M; and the cost for solid waste machinery, vehicles and equipment from $85M to $75M.
Assistant Town Clerk, Sherry Jerrick, thanked central government for its support and said the council has created history as far as a surplus budget is concerned. A date for the official presentation will be announced, she said.
The mayor and a number of councillors found it funny that People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Councillor, Bishram Kuppen, who is a member of the Finance Committee, did not vote in favour of passing of the estimates. Kuppen and two other PPP councillors who were present at Friday’s meeting abstained from voting on the draft estimates.
“I do not bring my political views to council. I work in the interest of the people in the City. Kuppen sits on the Finance Committee, so it was surprising to me that he abstained from voting,” the mayor remarked.
“That is to show us that there is no teamwork at Council level from the other political parties,” he added. The two AFC councillors were absent from the meeting.
“We should put aside our differences and work in the interest of the people in the City. The citizens need us. I am trying, my councillors are trying; but I am surprised at the opposition councillors,” Narine said.
