|
After several months of toing and froing between City Hall, Congress Place, and in at least one instance having the Government make a pronouncement,Cheap Jerseys From China, debt owed to the council has been paid.This was confirmed by Opposition Leader, Robert Corbin, who said that the debt was paid in full and City Mayor acknowledged that the money was paid on the final day of 2009.Corbin did not divulge the amount and Green said that he did not know the figure offhand but it is believed to be in the vicinity of $100M.In mid November last year, Mayor Hamilton Green had cause to say that he believed that there was a sustained campaign by the present administration to destabilise the management of the city.That statement followed an announcement that the government had no intentions to lend any more financial assistance to the cash-strapped Mayor and City Councillors of Georgetown (M&CC) until the massive $100M in back taxes is collected from the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR).In a strongly worded statement, the Ministry of Local Government pointed out that the fact that Mayor Hamilton Green is sitting on the PNCR Executive Committee and not collecting the rates and taxes is a glaring case of conflict of interest.According to the Mayor, the assessment of PNCR properties, like any other, cannot just happen like that; it has to be processed.This was also an argument proffered by the party some time prior to the local Government’s statement in that the properties and the rate they pay had to be assessed.At that time, the Ministry had issued a statement that stated inter alia that the records show that the city did not collect rates and taxes for the Sophia property, where the PNCR headquarters is located, for over a decade.“The PNCR has several other properties in the City for which no rates and taxes have been collected for more than 15 years. The partial records available to the Ministry show outstanding amounts totaling some $100 million.”According to the Ministry, the main opposition party has so far shown an unwillingness to meet its obligation in spite of the amnesty being granted on interest on debts owed to the Council.“Now that Mayor Green has been embraced once again by the PNCR and now sits on the Executive Committee of that party, the non-collection of rates and taxes must be seen as a conflict of interest on his part.”The Ministry pointed out that situation remains the case even though the M&CC is aware of the precarious situation with the finances of the City.“The city treasury is often without money to pay employees wages and salaries, contractors are owed huge sums and now the GPL is making demands for payments of hundreds of millions owed to it by City Hall.”It is becoming quite clear that the Mayor’s strategy is to allow the situation to deteriorate in order to embarrass the government and hope that the government will bail it out as it has done so often, the statement argued. |
|