What's up with Port of Spain Corporation?

ALMOST eight months have passed since Port of Spain got a new mayor. As he assumed duties at City Hall last August, Chinua Alleyne, the leader of one of the youngest councils in the corporation’s history, promised all decisions of the city would be guided by communication.

Yet to date, the mayor has never spoken with the media at any sort of formal press conference. And whatever grace period might have applied in the early day of his tenure has long expired.

That there is a pressing need for a better degree of accountability to the people who live, work and use the city is demonstrated by developments that cry out for explanation.

In January, Dr Kongshiek Achong Low, an alderman who was the chairman of the corporation’s standing public health committee, reportedly resigned with immediate effect. No reason was given publicly. And so there were unanswered questions when young attorney Kareem Marcelle was appointed as a replacement a month later.

Separately, a major administrative shake-up has reportedly occurred this month.

A new CEO has been appointed and the previous CEO sent on leave. The police Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau wishes to speak with a procurement officer, an asset management officer, a superintendent of transport and cleaning, two acting garage supervisors and an acting workshop foreman.

“There has been a change in the administrative position of the Port of Spain Corporation,” Mr Alleyne said, understatedly, during a statutory meeting on April 24. “We would like to assure her (the new CEO) and members of the national community the council is committed to working very closely with her.”

Whether this assurance was more than just a formality is unclear.

Though we acknowledge a police probe is cause for circumspection, there is nonetheless a concomitant duty on the part of the mayor to outline what’s happened.

This is particularly so given the number of upcoming procurement projects planned, including the sprucing-up of the Central Market, the St James Market, the Lapeyrouse Cemetery and several corporation premises.

In theory, local government is more connected to the people than the central government. That is, supposedly, the whole point of the municipal system.

But the approach of the mayor, who, like his predecessors, is an alderman who was not directly elected – though his name was on a mandatory list – seems to align with a lower standard of transparency than what we get even from evasive Cabinet ministers.

Mr Alleyne, the nephew of a former PM, may well, given his political forebears, desire to forge his own path.

But when it comes to his communication strategy, he needs to move beyond mere social media posts and photo opportunities and fully take up the mantle of the oath he has accepted.