Haslington/Grove residents demanding accountability for further rates payment
(This is the 16th in a series on local government)
By Miranda La Rose
Stabroek News
April 3, 2004
Residents in the Haslington/ Grove Neighbourhood Demo-cratic Council (NDC) area are now demanding strict financial accountability before they continue paying their rates and taxes.
And while saying they are prepared to help the council, they insist that embattled NDC Chairman Godfrey Henry "has to go."
Meanwhile, the office of the Haslington/Grove NDC is being managed by an acting chairman and an acting overseer/acting clerk who are trying to overcome a number of serious problems the council has encountered over its nine years, including bankruptcy.
Since the council's substantive overseer/clerk/ finance officer died more than a year ago, assistant overseer Colin Spencer has been carrying the mantle. The vacant post was never advertised even though at least one person believed to be suitably qualified had applied. No response was ever forthcoming from the council.
There is widespread dissatisfaction with the management of the council's affairs. According to a number of officers of the council in addition to two persons who had resigned, it would appear that amidst this general dissatisfaction no one heeded the warnings and conditions were allowed to deteriorate. Decisions were no longer taken collectively and the work of the council almost came to a standstill.
The silted channel at the Golden Grove koker where an electrical pump is used instead of the sluice-gate mechanism.
Unfulfilled potential
However, the Haslington/ Grove NDC has many things in its favour although it has not met the needs of its constituency over the past years since being elected to office.
The council manages two sub-offices; owns three pieces of earth-moving equipment (Hymacs), and two tractors and trailers, yet garbage collection is a problem in the community.
One officer asked rhetorically, "How many councils can boast of owning three Hymacs and two tractors?"
In spite of these equipment, only two of the three Hymacs are currently working while the neighbourhood's trenches are in need of cleaning. And both tractors are currently locked in a garage and the keys are still in the hands of the deposed chairman. Moreover, the council does no garbage collection while litter piles up on the parapet and the banks of trenches.
Fortunately, there isn't much industrial waste, but there are a few restaurants in the area and two markets. Bins are available at the market and most domestic refuse is burnt.
According to Ranger Lennox Solomon, Henry "had made it clear that he would not collect garbage once he remained as chairman." Superintendent of Works Winslow Culley, however, expressed concern that the two parked tractors need "a start-up or they would seize-up. They have been parked since last October and the keys are in Henry's possession." He said that in spite of requests to hand over the keys, Henry has not done so.
But recently the council took the decision to remove the padlock and replace it with another on the garage door. The tractors are normally used to transport materials to the backdam and are rented out.
Contract unknown
to council
At present the one working Hymac is engaged on a contract which Henry had secured. According to Culley, Henry took the contract unknown to the council.
During a search for the machinery by Ranger Randolph Dos Santos and a team, they found that one was executing a job for a housing cooperative in Ann's Grove for which the sum of $200,000 had been paid in advance. "We saw one of the machines working and after enquiring we were told that it was rented to the Dutch Cab Cooperative Housing Society by Henry," Dos Santos said.
However, the council has not received any of that money, the overseer claims. The council has worked out an arrangement with Henry and the housing cooperative for him to pay the Hymac operators (who are normally paid by the council) for the work they have done; and the housing cooperative would provide the fuel and repairs to the machinery. The cooperative will pay the council for other services.
Machinery not
generating income
Culley feels that the machinery the council owns should have generated a lot of funds for the council but that has not happened mainly because Henry had treated them as his personal property. He said that a number of works done by the council were said to have been voluntary, including some done at President's College.
But the council is paying the operators and buying everything including fuel and spare parts. "All you see is so much millions of dollars in repairs but none generated for work done. We are probably the only NDC in the whole country with three hymacs and two tractors and trailers and don't have funds or have done so much development works," he said.
He recalled that work had been undertaken using the council's machinery on behalf of Dipcon for the laying of tubings across the middle walk trenches in Victoria, Belfield and Nabaclis. The works were completed since last year and no money has been paid over to the NDC from that project although the contract was valued at about $2 million, he said. Spencer substantiated this.
Meanwhile at year-end the council was without money to pay its staff salaries.
Monitoring NDCs
Officers of the council said that if local government elections had been held as scheduled in 1998 the current problems would not have occurred.
In addition, they feel that if the Region Four administration and the local government ministry had been effective in monitoring the progress of NDCs the situation would not have gotten out of hand.
Salaries snag
Officers told Stabroek News recently that the work of the council came to a standstill last October when the council ran out of funds and couldn't pay monthly and weekly-paid workers.
They were paid no salaries for the Christmas holidays so "we could not even enjoy Christmas. "None of us were paid salaries for the Christmas.
We could not even buy a large (a bottle of rum). Christmas Eve everybody was just sick and depressed," Culley, said.
The monthly workers were paid their December, January and February salaries last month and the weekly workers who were not paid from November 22, were paid in January.
One worker, Lennox Solomon declared that the NDC staffers were "good workers. Where else would staff work without money for such a length of time?" However, Solomon admitted that there are several administrative problems and jobs in the area are not easy to come by.
Culley who has worked with the local authority, which preceded the council for some thirty years, first as a ranger, before climbing the ladder to his current post said that in all the years he has never experienced such a "low in the work affairs of the council."
He laid the blame for the state of affairs on poor leadership, ineffectiveness of the elected chairman as well as poor management by the acting overseer/acting clerk and acting finance officer who were not trained and equipped to carry out the functions of the most senior administrative position in the council.
Acting overseer Spencer said that he has worked to the best of his ability and always handed over money to the chairman as requested. The chairman always said that he would provide receipts but he seldom did.
Several officers claimed that the acting overseer was not firm in his manner and because of this he would always give in to the chairman's requests to hand over money without the necessary receipts. They said Henry would often tell the overseer that if he did not do as requested he had somebody else to put in his place.
Lapses in accountability
When it was time for one of the NDC sub-offices to pay over rates and taxes to the NDC main office at Nabaclis for a period last year, the overseer found out that the chairman had already collected the money. The overseer was told too that the staff had been instructed to pay themselves from the rates and taxes they had collected.
Spencer said, too, that he had been unaware that the chairman had overdrawn the sum of $2.5 million from the Sub-regional office at Enmore in October/November last year when the council was without funds. He subsequently learnt of the withdrawal, which was used for council affairs. The funds were taken from the joint account of NDCs in Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica).
The chairman has not yet granted Stabroek News an interview as requested to provide answers on these issues. However, according to the officers, Henry has promised to pay back all the monies he either owes the council or to account for the funds but to date he has not done so. According to them too, he had said he was going to resign as the chairman but not as a councillor until he clears his name regarding the finances and a number of other allegations made against him.
Council's budget
The council's budgetary estimates for this year and last year are basically the same. An expenditure of $68.9 million was earmarked for both capital and current works with the bulk of the funds expected to come from the collection of rates and taxes. The $3 million subvention from the central government would go to building bridges and access roads within the neighbourhood. Most of the roads were built by the region or directly through central government with the $3 million subvention going for the purchase of quarry cleaning and the building and patching of roads.
However, Spencer told Stabroek News that while the bulk of the funds is expected to come from rates and taxes it is likely that just about $25 million would be collected. "We rarely collect half of the funds expected from rates and taxes," he said.
Property valuation
Like other councils, he said, the NDC suffers a problem of valuation. "We need to revalue the entire neighbourhood and have new valuations. "People are paying according to the old system of valuation, with many paying from as low as $1,200 a year to $12,000, depending on the size of their property," he said. There are a number of new buildings valued at about $3 to $4 million but rates and taxes are not being collected since they have not been appraised.
He noted though that "many people have bluntly said that they will not pay their dues as long as this chairman is around."
Drainage and Irrigation
Despite its many problems, the NDC has seen some success mainly in the area of drainage and irrigation. Culley recalled that many areas are subjected to heavy flooding particularly in the heavy rainy season. While the Drainage and Irrigation (D&I) board is responsible for drainage in the area, he said that the neighbourhood has its role as well.
He noted that the D&I board has installed electrical pumps at Golden Grove, Cove and John and Victoria, but during the rainy season when there are blackouts and the pumps do not work flooding results.
Due to heavy silting the doors of the kokers are not opened. He said there was need for natural drainage, which the kokers could provide. In addition it was noted that the iron tubing, which has been laid from the trenches to the seawall is rotting and the water is not being discharged beyond the wall. He contends that the authorities at the D&I board are aware of this problem, particularly with Victoria.
Because of the vulnerability to flooding in Victoria, many persons have abandoned ground provision and livestock farming which had played a substantial role in their economic mainstay. Some amount of rice cultivation is done utilising higher ground.
He said what the council needs now is someone with the expertise to look at the trenches and to rebuild the roads alongside the `middle walks'. There are two middle walks in good condition including the one at Clonbrook. In addition to the trenches which need cleaning, the 'middle walks' at Victoria, Nabaclis and Golden Grove need to be rebuilt.
Community activities
The NDC office at Nabaclis was formerly the community centre building so actually Nabaclis is without a community recreational centre. Within the NDC, Victoria Village is probably the most organised. There are a number of sporting activities there and it has one of the better known football clubs in the country, Victoria Warriors.
The activities at Golden Grove are hampered by the bad condition of the sports ground. The ground was famous in the sixties and seventies when it hosted elite cycling events, attracting overseas competitors, and local cycling stars were household names such as George `Boy Blue' Cumberbatch, Norman `Boogie' De Freitas, McLean Roberts, and `Laddie' Lewis.
Culley said that the ground needs to be ploughed, rolled and maintained. It also needs to be fenced-in and a pavilion built for spectators. Asked if there was any proposal in place for this, he said that one had been submitted to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport. They are still awaiting a formal response. Meanwhile there are many young people who need recreational facilities in the Golden Grove, Nabaclis, and Haslington area.
Oldest church at Victoria
Meanwhile a number of residents at Victoria are concerned about the historical Wilberforce Congregational Church, which was pulled down for rebuilding on the advice of "the NDC" and is still to be reconstructed. The church was the first to be built in the village after the freed slaves had bought the village. It was built of wood and shingles. The church was pulled down in 2000 and a concrete foundation laid in 2001 to replace the original one. The only thing that remains on the site is the church bell and its tower. Some of the pews are stored on the ground floor of the NDC office at Nabaclis.