[www.inewsguyana.com] – The Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown claims that they were neither informed nor consulted by the Minister of Local Government, Norman Whittaker, on the use of $500 million allocated by the National Assembly for works in the City of Georgetown.
“The Mayor and City Council is the local government authority for the City of Georgetown. Yet, the Minister did no find it necessary to consult with it on the use of $500 million to do works in the City,” a statement noted.
It was pointed out that such a move is a breach of all democratic norms and a show of disrespect to the people of Georgetown, who elected the Mayor and Councillors as their representatives.
“As the Council understands it, the role of the Minister of local government is that of a facilitator for local demarcate organs. He should not get involved in actually expending monies allocated for works in the City; this is the statutory responsibility of the duly elected Mayor and Councillors of the city of Georgetown; the people’s representatives,” the statement added.
The Council says it is not aware of the plan and arrangement to expend what is essentially the people’s money (taxes) in the City; adding that it does not know about the process and approach used by the Minster to hire men and equipment, to do works in different parts of Georgetown.
“In fact, the council does not even know who are the people carrying out the works, the rates at which they are paid and what measurements are used to evaluate their work. It is not clear whether the council is getting value for money.”
The Council is calling on citizens to be alert, in their local communities, and to monitor works purportedly done by the central government knowing that their representatives are not involved.
