Cabinet confident City Hall will renegotiate parking meter contract

Mar 18, 2017 News, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....king-meter-contract/

It is the strong belief of the Cabinet of Ministers that the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown (M&CC) will heed to their recommendation that the parking meter project should be suspended for three months.

Initially, the basis for the suspension was to provide an avenue whereby City Hall could consult persons who have been protesting against the implementation of the project over the last seven weeks.

During yesterday’s Post-Cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency, Minister of State Joseph Harmon was asked whether his government would be playing an influential role to sway City Hall’s decision towards instituting the suspension, since the majority of councillors are politically aligned to the coalition government of A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance for Change.

Harmon said that he believes when the full council of the M&CC deliberates on the issue, it will act with some amount of alacrity in the interest of the people, while understanding very clearly what the government’s position is.

Further pressed on whether any direct conversations would have taken place between councillors at a party level, Harmon said he could not speak for the parties involved, but suspects that the relative parties would have communicated to their councillors on their position.

Harmon was also asked whether government envisages there being a breach of contract between the M&CC and Smart City Solutions (SCS) if there is a suspension of the contract. The Minister reiterated that Cabinet has given its advice and that it expects the advice to be heeded.

“My understanding is that the City Council has to have a meeting, where the advice of Cabinet is given to it and it is ratified, and they move forward with that. Thereafter, they will then contact Smart City Solutions, and that is the process, because it is a contract between those two parties, and the government’s intervention basically is to ensure that contract between the two parties is renegotiated on different terms.”

Harmon added that he is unable to say precisely when this process will begin, but believes that with the urgings of government, the process will begin very shortly. Town Clerk Royston King, in a letter to Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan, told the minister that the contract does not allow for a suspension of the contract, and such a breach would trigger the compensation clause in the agreement.

Minister Harmon stated that it is a legal issue and will be dealt with accordingly.

“The government has made its concern very clear and therefore, whether there is to be compensation or not, that is a matter to be addressed in the process. My understanding of the process is that if the parties do not agree with a position, then they go to arbitration, and in the arbitration these issues are dealt with, but I believe the signal sent by government is a strong enough one that the parties to the contract understand that this is something that needs to be done.”

Further, Harmon was asked if there is any other recourse the government can take in the event that its advice is not heeded.

According to the Minister, there are two options – suspension and revocation. He added that if an intervention by a party which can be described as ‘Force Majeure” exists, then certainly the parties to the contract will understand what needs to be done.

A ‘Force Majeure’ clause is commonly used in contracts and serves to free all parties of any liability when there is an unforeseen event beyond their control preventing the agreement from being enforced.

According to Harmon, the decision to advise City Hall to institute a suspension came after extensive discussions by Cabinet. He said that Cabinet believed it had sufficient information which informed the decision.

“Some of the issues Cabinet agreed needed to be addressed were, the installation of parking meters on streets that are within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, the use by the concessionaire company (SCS) of parapets that were not under the jurisdiction of the Mayor and City Council, the cost of parking in the city of Georgetown, provisions for the parking of police, army and fire service vehicles as well as ambulances in areas of Georgetown, the financial arrangements of the project and the greater involvement of stakeholders in the process.”

He said that it is the strong view of Cabinet that the concerns expressed by citizens of Georgetown and Guyana must be taken into consideration in these matters, and as such, Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan was requested to report the issues of concern raised to the M&CC.

Cabinet confident City Hall will renegotiate parking meter contract

Mar 18, 2017 News, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....king-meter-contract/

According to the Minister, there are two options – suspension and revocation. He added that if an intervention by a party which can be described as ‘Force Majeure” exists, then certainly the parties to the contract will understand what needs to be done.

A ‘Force Majeure’ clause is commonly used in contracts and serves to free all parties of any liability when there is an unforeseen event beyond their control preventing the agreement from being enforced.

According to Harmon, the decision to advise City Hall to institute a suspension came after extensive discussions by Cabinet. He said that Cabinet believed it had sufficient information which informed the decision.

Interesting how the PNC government will establish the ‘Force Majeure’ clause for this contract.

Perhaps, the PNC/AFC government may manufacture the conditions for unforeseen events. 

There is no reason to manufacture anything. The people have spoken..they have been on picket lines and wouldnt be surprised should a riot occur. 

All contracts have a clause that frees both parties from liability when events such as ..riots..war..an act of God etc occur preventing the fulfilling of obligations. I am not against parking meters but not at the cost we have seen..that is outright theft.