Parking meter burden
Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary and Opposition Leader, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has called out the Government for failing to nip the Parking Meter Project in its bud, as he rejected the sympathies now being expressed by President David Granger and his administration in relation to the corrupt initiative.
Jagdeo highlighted that the Central Government had more than enough opportunities to prevent the project from materialising, but refused to act on the premise of not wanting to interfere with local government affairs.
But the Opposition Leader finds it odd how Government suddenly changed its views full circle, after civil society reacted in uproar and demanded that the shady deal be scrapped.
Government was privy to the contract some five months ago, but yet allowed the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to grant the green light to the private investors, despite the contract consisting of clauses which allows the parking meter company to take full control of the capital.
Jagdeo highlighted that Government could have stopped the project from going forward right there, especially since they have majority Councillors on the M&CC.
“The ministry had an adverse review of the contract and yet they proceed to support it and they can’t claim that they did not support this project,” the former President observed.
He noted too that the Government had another opportunity to terminate the deal when the By-laws came to the Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan for approval.
“So they not only had the contract, (they) had a review done of the contract, gone against their own review of the contract, but then they had one of their Cabinet ministers help to bring this contract into being so who takes approval for that, is it not Granger himself,” he stated.
Jagdeo also argued that the concerns now being expressed by the Alliance For Change (AFC) arm of the coalition Government are not even genuine as its members were part and parcel in the process of supporting the controversial project.
The Opposition Leader also contended that a reduction in the rates of the paid parking will not solve the problem, as he reiterated calls for the entire initiative to be scrapped. “There are so many other features of that contract that are unbelievably stacked in favour of the investor… they have he has now saddled us with unbelievable liabilities if this contract should be repudiated now… and we can only put the blame at the doorstep of this Government,” he emphasized. (Guyana Times)
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