WITHIN recent times, there has been much talk from the Mayor of Georgetown, Mr. Hamilton Green about the report of the Commission of Inquiry, held some months ago, into the affairs of City Hall.

He is complaining again. This time it is for a copy of the report submitted by the Commissioner, Mr. Keith Burrowes, to the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Mr. Kellawan Lall, two weeks ago.

The report was compiled after nine months of an intense and rigorous investigation, but the Mayor wants the Minister to complete studying the report within two weeks and hand a copy over to him.

When will the Mayor get down to doing some work for the city? This gentleman has spent most of his fourteen years, in office, complaining and criticising his fellow Councillors, the officers, the government and now it is the people who were involved in doing the inquiry and the report.

This is the same Mayor, who, months ago, said the government was not taking action to dismiss staff, at the City Council.

This is the same man who complained about the time the Commissioner took to do a proper inquiry.

Now he is talking about the report not being handed over to him. The Mayor seems to be in a rush to get his agenda through in spite of all else.

He is giving the impression that he is not prepared to wait and allow the Minister to carefully examine the report. He wants a copy.

The next logical question must be to what end? The answer is not blowing in the wind. It can be easily found in the way the incumbent Mayor operates.

His years at City Hall have shown that he criticises anything that does not originate from him or any process that does not give him his desired results. Since this did not originate from him and he publicly criticised the time the process took, he is likely to be very critical of the report. His impatience is betraying his pretence of objectivity. In fact, his recent utterances, reported by the press, speak more to the high level of subjectivity with which he has been making decisions and running the Council.

Already, the media has reported him as saying negative things about this report. My guess is that after all his efforts to get the government to investigate staff, the Mayor sees this inquiry as nothing more than a political conspiracy by some group of persons to get at him. It’s all about him.

It is common knowledge that the Commissioner of Inquiry, Mr. Burrowes, has worked beyond the call of duty, under very difficult circumstances to do a thorough investigation into various aspects of the operations of the municipality.

This was no small task particularly in circumstances where there was a dearth of information and basic financial instruments used, in any well run organisation, for proper accountability. There were public and private hearings. Workers of the council as well as management were encouraged to submit presentations to the Commissioner. My information is that many days and nights were spent in putting together this document.

It is therefore clear, that the Minister must be given sufficient time to study the report and its recommendations. As I understand it, the report itself was well crafted with very detailed analyses, and specific recommendations to lift the council out of the doldrums of financial imprudence and petty squabbles to a position of respect and financial rectitude.

If certain recommendations are accepted, in 2010, the council will have its first unqualified financial report from the Auditor General after many years of qualified ones.

Presently, the reports on the Council are very discouraging to any tax-payer. Maybe that is why the Council is finding it difficult to get property owners to pay up their taxes.

Perhaps, the report of the Commission of Inquiry would inspire confidence and help Council out of its financial troubles it qualms about year after year.

If my suspicion is true that, the Mayor is seeking to ‘negative’ the report then the nine months time and the valiant efforts made by the Commissioner to help the Council and by extension the city of Georgetown would have been wasted. This would be a big shame for all of us who are deeply concerned about the state of affairs at City Council.

It therefore behooves the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development to do all within his power to ensure that the recommendations articulated by the Commissioner are implemented as quickly as possible even if it means involving the Commissioner to assist in the implementation of the recommendations.

I do not believe that the Council could be sustained in its present form without compromising the welfare of the citizens of the City. The Minister needs to act now.
CHRISTOPHER POTTER