Six months into the year and with no accountability as to how monies were spent in previous months, City Hall on Wednesday presented a $3.2 billion budget which was approved with a majority vote.
The approval was granted following deliberations between Councillors, mainly from the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), in the presence of Mayor Alfred Mentore and Deputy Major Denise Miller.
In presenting the budget, Chairman of the Finance Committee, Lelon Saul, emphasised that for this year the Council will work towards improving transparency and accountability.
“The Council in 2024 will continue to improve transparency, accountability, delivery of core municipal services and stakeholder management.
“The 2024 budget intends to focus on improved systems and processes which will guarantee good governance to make the city more inclusive, resilient and sustainable in the long term,” he said.
Importantly, in light of concerns about City Hall being cash strapped, Saul highlighted that the council is in the process of getting their accounts audited.
“The Council will improve its effectiveness of debt recovery by hiring and training staff members,” Saul said.
Further, Saul said that in 2024, the Council intends to take several initiatives to bring in needed revenue.
This includes the implementation of remedies to recover rates and taxes owned by property owners. There will also be a better flood and drainage management while emphasis will also be placed on street vending.
“We can’t have people vending in front of Cuffy. We have to fix those things. The Council will map areas vulnerable to flooding and implement measures to reduce risks associated with flooding.
“The Council will work to minimize the negative environmental impact on the city by focusing on improving air quality of waste management.
“The Council will ensure that everyone has access to safe, inclusive and accessible green and public spaces,” Saul said.
Following deliberations, Don Singh raised concerns about the lateness of the budget, which he did not support.
“We are presenting a budget on June 5 with a lot of goals and ideas….We don’t know what was spent in the first six months so we don’t know how much is left to be spent in the next five months. So to me it is unrealistic,” Singh said.
In defence, Mentore said considerations needed to be given to the amount of internal issues that arose and had to be dealt with.
“We have to put systems in place…for the many years that I have been here the budget is usually presented around March but we will try our best to see how we can keep ahead,” Mentore said.
Councillor Steven Jacobs heavily disagreed on the aspect of the budget which includes the seizures of properties to recover rates and taxes.
“We need to take a better approach at manning this city and it’s a hands on approach,” Jacobs said.
That clause of the budget was subsequently extracted.
The 2024 budget does not include debts owed by City Hall to the utility companies and the Guyana Revenue authority.
Mentore said that in the coming six to eight weeks, a supplementary budget will be presented to address this.
