City bylaws for parking metres being vetted by AG

GINA, GUYANA, Thursday, February 02, 2017

City Bylaws regulating the  parking meter project are being vetted by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams SC., before being presented to Cabinet for approval and subsequent gazetting.

Mayor Patricia Chase-Green displaying at the Georgetown Mayor and City Council statutory meeting on January 24, 2016 the by-laws document for the parking meter project that was signed by Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan

At today’s post-cabinet press briefing, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, said the vetting is being done to ensure the bylaws are foolproof against any legal complications.

Harmon reported that on January 24, Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, signed off on the bylaws presented to him by Georgetown Mayor and City Council for the implementation of the parking meter project. The move by Bulkan paved the way for mandatory payments via the meters for motorists wishing to park their vehicles on designated parking areas.

Harmon explained that though the by-laws were signed off by the Communities Minister, “it still has to go through the process of the Attorney General testing and checking it to ensure that it is consistent with the Laws of Guyana.”

“Our system actually requires that whatever laws come from whichever ministry, that it has to be signed off by the AG before it actually comes to Cabinet, so this is where it (the by-laws) is right now, at the Ministry of Legal Affairs,” Harmon explained.

The Minister said that once the AG has finished with the document, Cabinet would give its final determination on it. “Once that is done, all that is required is that the bylaws be advertised in the official gazette,” he said.

Questioned about whether the by-laws were vetted by the AG before being signed off by the Minister of Communities,  Harmon said, “I cannot say whether it is vetted or not.  I can say to you what the process is. Whether he (the AG) had vetted it before he would actually state that in the report that he present to Cabinet,” the minister said.

Harmon noted that the council is fully authorised to institute the question of parking meters. He explained that the bylaws only speak to certain categories of exemption for certain vehicles belonging to specific agencies. “All of these arrangements I do not believe are fully in place, under the current arrangement and therefore they need to have bylaws to regulate how that functions,” the minister explained.

 

By: Macalia Santos

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