Many current administrators of City Hall are clueless

Dear Editor,

I WOULD like to concur with a recent letter written by a Mr. Anthony Subner in which he posits that the cheap, dirty and obstructionist politics being practiced by the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown is being done at the expense and peril of the City and citizens of Georgetown.
Somewhere along the line the Mayor has been misled into believing that Georgetown is a City-state that is sovereign and independent of what is going on in the rest of Guyana and has its own government. His continued attempts to ignore and to countermand lawful instructions of the Local Government Commission and Ministry of Local Government is just bizarre.
When there was no Local Government Commission (LGC) set up, the Mayor’s group used to moan and carry on about the Minister of Local Government having too much say in the affairs of the municipality and that it was an aberration of democratic norms in local governance. Now that there is a Local Government Commission, the council still wants to continue doing its own thing without any oversight.

It seems that no one has given the Mayor and his colleagues the memo that Guyana is moving forward and is being transformed into a modern, progressive society that is on a path of development. No one has told the Mayor that he is not an Executive Mayor, but rather that his role is merely titular and ceremonial and that he shares power with the entire council?
I wish to commend the LGC for beginning to make changes within the administration as clearly many of the current administrators are clueless, inept and not cut out for the jobs that they were given. The commission needs to make many more such changes if they are to rescue Georgetown from being a place of great vice and corruption that it has become.
Just look at the clutter and blight of the unregulated street vending in downtown and all around Georgetown. This is because many mayors and councillors believe that these are their constituents who will keep voting for them, so they encourage them in this lawless behaviour. Look at the complete lack of accountability at the council, with their financial books not being audited in decades. In the past when there were giants of men like E.L. Mayers as Town Clerk and Cyril Ramalho as Treasurer, the books were audited and qualified each year religiously.

It is time that the Mayor and City Council stop running to court whenever they can’t have their way, hiring pricey and fancy lawyers in the process. It is just a waste of the rates paid by property owners. It is time that the square pegs that are in round holes at City Hall be removed and positions are filled by proficient, accomplished and knowledgeable persons. The friends and family initiative should be brought to an end.
I would like to congratulate, encourage, and extend best wishes to Ms. Candace Nelson, who has been appointed to act as the Town Clerk whether the Mayor likes it or not. The task will not be an easy one cleaning up all the mess that was created by her predecessors and doing so whilst of course not enjoying the support of the Mayor and his comrades. However, she can be assured of the support and confidence of the citizens of Georgetown who would just like Georgetown to be placed under competent, decent and intelligent leadership.

Yours sincerely,

Shanta Singh

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