-78% revenue loss recorded, says Mayor Narine

MAYOR of Georgetown, Ubraj Narine, on Wednesday, revealed that the city has suffered a 78 per cent loss in revenue since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further, the lack of finances has forced the council to put several of its projects on hold.

Mayor Narine made these disclosures during a press conference held in the council’s chambers, where he emphasised the tremendous negative impact that the virus has had on the financial resources and by extension the operations of the council.

He said the council used the money that it had on several priority items. The municipality, he explained, has to find $120 million per month for wages and owes the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) approximately some $400 million, an accumulated sum from 1993 to present.
“The plans that we had as Mayor and councillors we couldn’t execute it, because the money is not there. The lil bit money that we actually have is to pay staff and to do other works that are necessary,” said Mayor Narine.

He used the opportunity to call on the government to pay its outstanding rates and taxes, which he said would significantly help the council to offset several expenses, which includes a $100 million debt to Puran Brothers for solid waste management.

He added that the municipality also owes the City Constabulary a retroactive amount of over $20 million, which it intends to pay by December 31.
The Mayor clarified that the council does not receive financial support from the government, but said that while this is understandable, there are several strategies the government can employ to ease the load of the council.

Mayor Narine made reference to the findings of an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) study that sought to deal with solid waste management. The study suggested that a government controlled National Solid Waste Management Organisation be established. Narine believes that such a body could significantly decrease the cost associated with solid waste management in the city.

The Mayor explained too that the cost attached to the work of the council most times outweighs the money it receives.
Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall, had recently disclosed that between the years 2015-2019, the revenue the municipality received had totalled $10.7 billion.

Regarding this, the Mayor said while the municipality has collected a significant sum over the years, there are several expenditures that require large sums. He said that within the past five years, the M&CC had to dispense $2.5 billion for solid waste management.

Meanwhile, Minister Dharamlall, in an interview with the DPI, shared differing sentiments from the Mayor. The minister had said “the municipalities have managed their resources poorly.”

His comments came after he disclosed that the large sums of revenue were collected by the municipalities over the last five years. Minister Dharamlall has made a commitment to have audits conducted in all 10 municipalities.

“I believe with an audit or at least 10 audits … in these local democratic organs, we will be able to get a good idea of what are the gaps and where are the inefficiencies so we can work with the administration of these municipalities to manage their resources better,” Minister Dharamlall said.

Minister Dharamlall had further disclosed that the government has allocated $2million to each of the 10 administrative regions. This is part of the government’s efforts to lend support to the municipalities to offset varying expenses, including the payment of town council staff, who have not been paid for months.

The Local Government Ministry will be collaborating with the Local Democratic Organs to address the deficiencies in each municipality.