Dear Editor,
In light of the recent and blindsiding revelation that the Government and people of Guyana have been slapped with a United States $100 million, or over 20 billion Guyana dollars’ lawsuit by parking meter concessionaire Smart City Solutions (SCS) as a consequence of a most controversial deal that was championed by then Town Clerk of Georgetown Royston King, I believe that the current Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown are now rubbing salt in the wounds of the citizens by making a decision to allow King to receive his pension, gratuity, and other benefits purportedly owed to him.
The City of Georgetown is still reeling from the misadventures of this gentleman, including contractors being owed hundreds of millions for a number of unnecessary projects that were undertaken during his tenure, including the now incomplete, derelict and abandoned Presidential Park at the intersection of Vlissengen & North Roads and Church Street; the inoperative and dilapidated state of the City Constabulary Training Complex facility, in spite of a massive $47 million having been purportedly spent on its repairs; the list of 55 lessees who benefited unlawfully from several riverside properties and reserves being leased to them without the knowledge or approval of the Council, which is in breach of the Municipal and District Councils Act; and the failure to pay the Guyana Revenue Authority income tax and the National Insurance Scheme for social security that had been deducted from salaries of employees, among so many other such acts.
I fail to understand how the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown could even consider, much less approve, a motion for the payment of benefits to someone who was fired as a result of a recommendation made that this person be cited for “gross misconduct, abuse of office, recklessness, dishonesty, conspiracy, and misappropriation of funds” following a Commission of Inquiry which was held.
But, then again, there is an old saying in Guyana: “Contrary breeze ah mek crow and eagle light on one line”.
Sincerely,
Magagula Jackson
