Last week we told you about the ongoing problems at the Punta Gorda Town Council. 5 councillors wrote to the Minister of Local Government, Oscar Requena on June 4th saying that they had concerns about mismanagement of public funds. Requena went down, held a meeting and told us the problem was not money mismanagement, but miscommunication between the Mayor and his councillors.
Well, since then, things have not improved - and on July fourth, the councillors wrote again saying, quote, "nothing has been done to resolve these issues that exist at the Punta Gorda Town Council."
They called the mayor for a meeting on Friday July 7th - but he never showed up.
Now, these councillors don't just want a council social - they want to know about the awarding of specific contracts - like the one for almost half a million dollars to pave North Street in the town. But, so far, there are now answers.
Today, the Leader of the Opposition called on the government to install financial controllers at these councils:
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"Then the councillors that sign the initial letter complaining of a lack of transparency, of a potential misappropriation of funds wrote another letter saying that since we wrote a first letter we have still not heard from the mayor. The mayor has still not sufficiently addressed our concerns."
"Well this is the PUP way. It is abundantly clear. They dither, they deflect, they make excuses and they protect the status quo and this is what we see unfold display in PG where the councillors are demanding accountability, they are demanding that their mayor open up the processes by which the monies that belong to the tax payers of Punta Gorda - the monies are being spent and they are being dismissed by the minister. The prime minister said oh just politics. No, it's not. It's the people's money. What he should do is put a financial comptroller in there to deal with the matter since the mayor feels that he is above accountability."
