Minister Whittaker and the Municipality
of New Amsterdam
MINISTER of Local Government and Regional Development, Norman Whittaker along with a team of senior officers of the ministry on Friday, February 28 visited the three municipalities of Region 6, meeting with their respective councils.
According to a release from the Local Government Ministry, the meetings focused primarily on the projects proposed by the councils in their respective 2014 Budget Estimates.
Also high on his agenda were the issues of roadside vending and solid waste management, both of which are challenges faced by the Region 6 municipalities.
Mr. Zaheer Osman, Managing Director of Advance Environment Solution, the company responsible for solid waste collection and disposal in Region 6 was also present for these meetings at the request of Minister Whittaker.
MENU OF MEASURES
The parties discussed the challenges in addressing the issues affecting the improvement in solid waste management and agreed on a menu of measures aimed at addressing these challenges. These measures include the contractor making available to the municipalities and to residents a schedule for collection; an intensified solid waste education and public awareness programme that involves not only the contractor but the municipalities, the Regional Democratic Council of Region 6 and the private sector.
Minister Whittaker and the Municipality of Corriverton
Minister Whittaker, while stressing that residents and the municipalities must work with the contractor, also alluded to the Solid Waste Management Bill which he indicated would, when approved in the National Assembly, undoubtedly impact the way solid waste is stored, collected, transported and disposed of.
Mr. Osman’s responsibilities include developing, operating and maintaining the landfill sites identified and approved by the EPA in Region 6.
The release further stated that the high level of outstanding rates and taxes for residential and commercial properties; the under utilization of available market buildings and facilities and the high incidence of roadside vending were identified by the minister as a scourge that needed to be addressed.
Municipalities must seek to intensify efforts to collect rates and taxes and to have vendors move into the markets, he emphasized.
PROPERTY REVALUATION
Commenting on the request by these municipalities for property revaluation with a view to increasing rates, Minister Whittaker retorted that while he is not unsupportive of the municipalities having new property rates and those extended and/or reclassified from residential to commercial valued by the rightful authority, the Office of the Chief Valuation Officer, efforts ought to be intensified to have existing defaulters honour their debts.
Otherwise, he posited, the pressures continue to reside at the feet and on the shoulders of the disciplined and honest ratepayers who have been paying up.
In discussing Councils’ 2014 Estimates, the Honourable Minister pointed to the fact that in all three municipalities, more than 70% of their Capital Works are to be funded from Government’s subvention while their maintenance works are to be funded from an average 17% of the Estimates with Employment Costs/Overheads averaging 67% for the three municipalities.
Minister Whittaker and the Municipality of Rose Hall
He expressed his dissatisfaction and asked that more resources garnered mainly from rates and market fees be utilised to provide core services of drainage, removal of vegetation, solid waste management and road maintenance.
The minister also discussed with council the issue of illegal occupancy of reserve lands and called on the councils to work with Government to address these illegalities which continue to contribute to the problems of traffic congestion, dumping of garbage and destruction of the aesthetics of the environment in which we live.
(By Savitri Laikram)
GUYANA CHRONICLE