Local News

Jagdeo slams City Council for failure to recover $6.5B owed by PNC amidst workers’ strike

16 January 2025
This content originally appeared on INews Guyana.
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General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has slammed the Mayor and City Council for its lack of responsibility in pursuing the $6.5 billion in debt that is owed by the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R).

His remarks come amid the industrial strike by city workers, following the Mayor and PNC Councillors decision to disallow salary increases due to insufficient financial resources.

However, according to Dr Jagdeo, the council has access to a massive potential revenue source that could be used to meet the needs of its workers and development projects, but has refused to recover these resources.

“They keep diverting the issue every time it’s raised, to the government’s support for the city,” he expressed during a press conference on Thursday at Freedom House.

The government’s support for Georgetown has been significant, Jagdeo stressed, since nearly all development works have been taken over by the central government, that is supposed to be the city council’s responsibility.

In fact, a number of infrastructure projects such as roads, drainage systems, recreational facilities, and green spaces, are being implemented in the city, amounting to billions or dollars. Despite this, the city council continues to highlight the issue of government support, avoiding its own accountability, he pointed out.

Jagdeo went on to remind that the substantial debt of $6.4 billion arose from an assessment conducted by the city council, including a demand latter for a company owned by the PNC/R.

“For the many, many years it never paid taxes to the city council for the entire massive property that they have at Congress Place. They owe 6.4 billion dollars now. They would not pay it and the city council will not go after them. Yet they will say to the workers there that they don’t have a source of revenue to pay them,” he lamented.

The general secretary highlighted that if the council was serious about revenue generation, they would be demanding that the substantial debt be paid. Instead, he said the council has been renting city-owned properties tothe PNC at extremely low rates, for as little as $100,000 per year, despite their value.

As PPP GS, he called on city councillors to push for accountability and demand action to recover this significant revenue source. He believes that the financial struggles can be alleviated, once the money is collected. (DPI)