Jagdeo: Government not starving City of funds, City being starved of competent leadership

General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, has refuted claims that the party is starving the City Council of Georgetown of money.
Speaking during his weekly press briefing at Freedom House today, Dr Jagdeo responded to what he described as statements made during an Alliance For Change (AFC) press conference last week.

He stressed that the AFC dodged a question as to whether it owed the City Council, yet the party is claiming that the PPP is starving the City Council of funds.
He slammed the claim by the AFC as false, noting that the opposition’s management of City Hall has instead been characterised by corruption and incompetence, rather than service to the people of Georgetown.

“The level of investment made in the City by this government is unprecedented, in every single area. We had to take over almost all of the responsibilities of the City Council, from drainage and irrigation, to the fixing of roads in the City, to all 34 playgrounds… even the beautification programmes… we have assisted enormously with garbage collection too,” Dr Jagdeo said.
He reiterated that a tax scheme by the City Council had to be resisted and pointed to inefficiencies plaguing the council.
“The entire revenue of the City is used back on themselves, not on service to the people or in service to the people of Georgetown… They’re unaccountable at City Hall. For years their accounts have not been audited, they have these schemes that characterise their presence in City Hall. They’re attempting now to pursue one of those schemes and the minister has had to put a hold on it because it would have resulted in hardships to the people of Georgetown,” Dr Jagdeo said.
He further alleged that several properties owned by the City are being rented to the opposition for as little as $100,000 per year, while billions of dollars are owed in taxes.

“They’ve accumulated over $6 billion of debt to City Hall, considering the budget of City Hall which is about $3 billion per year. That’s about two years of expenditure in the City. This one company that is the holding company for PNC properties, they never paid any taxes historically. And so that’s why the sums accumulated to such a vast amount,” the PPP General Secretary said.
He added that the opposition keeps creating a smokescreen around such issues but has not been honouring tax obligations to the City.