Dear Editor,

NOT so long ago, energetic Mayor of Georgetown, His worship, Ubraj Narine voiced his concern about moneys being owed his municipality, and the need for those outstanding sums to be paid. It is a truth that predates his sitting at the head of the horseshoe table, and which has been the pivotal cause of City Hall not being able to advance many of its plans for the betterment of the City, and the welfare of its citizens.

There have been many letters and editorials published in your columns about this decided deliberate decision of many commerce and business concerns especially, and domestic/private residences not to pay their taxes. This neglect of the civic duty can be traced back to the period beginning with the PPP/C’s ascent to power, when business owners commenced this process of default, that began to coincide with the deterioration of the City’s maintenance, particularly with regard to its sanitation services which heralded the indiscriminate dumping of garbage, garbage piles and the city’s reserves in many places being taken over with thick vegetation. Coupled with this was a then political governance regime that displayed little or no interest in the general environment of its capital city, because the latter had never been, and still is not, a constituency of support for the then party in government, and one can understand some of the whys of the criminal neglect which had befallen a city once described as the Garden City, perhaps the best at one time in the English–speaking Caribbean.

By the time of Mayor Narine’s arrival at City Hall, the City had already undergone a dramatic change, beginning with the new dispensation, which ushered in a groundswell of citizens practical support and involvement in the renewal of their city. With support from the Coalition government, the City underwent a transformation which could not have failed to catch the eyes of even those who had conspired to bring it to its hazardous state.

The Mayor has shown that he wants to continue the municipality’s programme of not only the continuation of the renewal process, but also its daily maintenance, in which his Council’s service is best able to deliver on a sustained basis. However, this is about a municipality which must have sufficient finances to support such a process. Of course, the Mayor certainly knows this, which must have influenced his reason to engage in a mutual dialogue with the Private Sector, the largest defaulter of the billions owed to the Council.

I stand corrected that there was a Memorandum of Understanding, perhaps the end result of the encounters between the Mayor and the Private Sector. Though memory cannot now recall the details of this document, it is certain that the mountainous-owed debt would have been the crucial feature of this agreement.
Viewed objectively, it would seem that the MOUs had been a strategy to control City Hall, with regards the burning issue of the untenable debt of billions owed. This is borne out by terse exchanges between the Chief Citizen and the PSC concerning the outstanding debts. The fact that this public exchange occurred was a recognition of the fact that the MOU was not working, particularly with regards the City’s coffers still being denied the huge sums owed, which continued to impact negatively on the City’s efforts at meeting its civic obligations.

And so, we must now come to this fact that there is no municipality in any region anywhere that is owed such huge sums, which can be expected to deliver on its mandate of administrating in any proper and satisfying manner the civic affairs of its city/province etcetera. It amounts to an absurdity, and the greatest of obscenities on which to place City Hall on such UNFAIR ground, and expect it to deliver. It is also a putrid hypocrisy for those very errant citizens to be among the City’s most vocal critics when they are among its most prominent defaulters. The Parking Meter Protest, which was really an anti-government construct, is an abject example of the deception and dishonesty that surrounds this unconscionable collective.

At the time of writing, another MOU has been signed between the Mayor, his Council and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GCCI). This is again testimony that the current Mayor is genuine about his Council’s desire and plans for a much-improved city, especially building on what had been started after May 2015. The array of matters, described as “thematic areas”, encapsulated in its paragraphs refers to an array of issues that are pivotal to the daily progressive health of the city: general rates, public security, building codes, safety regulations for construction procedures, infrastructure development, environment(inclusive of garbage collection and public) among others.

These are indeed pivotal areas which speak to modernization of the City, and no doubt Mayor Narine sees this becoming a reality, in conjunction with the GCCI, since they have a role to play. However, there is a reality which the Mayor and council must face – that no amount of goodwill and patience; no amount of written intentions, without its practical reciprocity of the billions in outstanding taxes being paid, will suffice for the City’s urgent need for hard revenue, which must only come from those who are indebted to the City. He must not allow himself to be distracted in anyway, from the most serious challenge facing his council – the billions of unpaid taxes. He has a statutory duty, as well as a right to demand, without compromise, those sums owed; for it is time that those unconscionable citizens honour their civic obligation. THE CITY NEEDS ITS REVENUE.

Regards,
Carla Mendonca