City Hall Inquiry…
– but expresses concern over delayed report disclosure
GEORGETOWN Mayor Hamilton Green yesterday commended Commissioner of the Inquiry into City Hall operations, Mr. Keith Burrowes, on the work he has done so far.

He said that Burrowes is well-intentioned and has broadened the investigation to include its scope and that helps.

However, Mr. Green remarked that he is extremely concerned about the length of time the process is taking, with regard to disclosing the findings.

He speculated that something must have gone wrong, because the City Council cannot yet get proper reports on those officers who were sent on leave.

Green declared that the lack of such information hurts the municipality and is most unsatisfactory.

According to him, the matter is still lingering and justice delayed is justice denied.

Green remarked that the situation is impacting negatively on the moral structure of society, and said that is the reason he is calling for “an end to this hiatus.”

Meanwhile, the Guyana Chronicle has been reliably informed that Burrowes has long completed his report, and that Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Mr. Kellawan Lall, has been fully briefed on the recommendations in it.

This newspaper has also learnt that Lall has taken some time to peruse and digest the contents of the document before briefing the media on it.

Burrowes was sworn to undertake the task, as sole Commissioner, on August 5, 2008 after being appointed by Lall to look into the affairs of the Georgetown Municipality.

The Minister had also named a panel of six persons to assist Burrowes in the discharge of his duties.

The panelists are Mr. Ranwell Jordan, Mrs. Patricia Chase-Green and Mr. Premchand Dass, City Councillors; Mr. Andrew Hicks, trade unionist; Mr. Brijlall Rampersaud, from the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, and Mrs. Lorene Baird, Deputy Finance Secretary, Ministry of Finance.

Burrowes had a mandate to:

* peruse the Report of the Auditor General on the

Municipality for 2007;

* obtain the assistance of knowledgeable persons in conducting

the inquiry;

* look into irregularities identified in the report, as they relate to the offices of the Town Clerk and City Treasurer, loans to members of staff and others, advances on salaries to members of staff, irregularities in rates collection, municipal accounts in commercial banks, and restructuring municipal departments and operations;

* pronounce on the culpability (if any) of the Town Clerk and

the City Treasurer, and

* make recommendations to the Minister in all the matters

enquired into.

In an invited comment yesterday, Mr. Burrowes reiterated, for the umpteenth time, that he had completed his investigations and had provided the Minister with three volumes of findings and recommendations.

However, he had been forced to leave one volume open-ended, as instances of fraudulent transactions and other anomalies were continuously being unearthed and seemingly unending, hence the need for a continuum of investigative activities.

According to the Commissioner, the expansion of the scope of the probe was vindicated by many eventualities of the investigation – not least the M&CC arising out of its formerly comatose state to effectively and correctly utilize in productive ways, for once, the subvention Government has been periodically allocating to the municipality; i.e. the cleaning up of the city and its environs.

The several incidence of fraud being discovered is another reason for the non-closure of the final volume within the framework of the allocated timespan.

One such instance of fraud was forced into the public domain through a court case involving a property dispute, which necessitated clarification by the Commissioner on the circumstances of that particular fraudulent activity.

As of yesterday, Burrowes and his representatives were still having discussions with the Police Crime Branch, providing additional information on the matter, which has caused further delay in making public the findings of the report, because, after this new development occurred, and there was a public expose of this particular fraudulent act perpetrated by person or persons yet unknown, the Commissioner thought it imperative to make accommodations for the new findings over the past several weeks.

He therefore decided to include some of the issues that evolved out of those investigations in the open-ended volume of his report.

However, he said this additional aspect of the investigations should be completed by this coming Friday.

Mr. Burrowes is concerned about several aspects of the management of the municipality, and at the moment he has issues with irregularities he has observed as being detrimental to the general functionality of City Hall.

The Commissioner also noted that his report contains a series of recommendations, some of which have already begun to be implemented at City Hall.

The Chronicle has also been reliably informed that the Commissioner has even made a “personal donation” and has been very instrumental in ensuring that City Hall was able to start the computerization of the Accounts department.

Just last Saturday, Burrowes had an interactive meeting with the various heads of departments to help them review their budgets for the next half year, and to plan ahead for the next financial year. He noted that the meeting was well attended.

Mr. Burrowes is adamant that, while he is satisfied that he has fulfilled his original mandate, he would remain personally dissatisfied if he does not extend his commitment beyond the parameters of the initial requirements of his contractual obligations, because he is a patriot, loyal to his country, who has committed himself to an undertaking, of which the magnitude was never envisaged.

And Burrowes says it would be remiss of him if he did not address all the emerging challenges to satisfy his personal requirement for optimum efficacy within the dispensation of the requisite configurations that could eventuate into optimum functionality at City Hall.

It is commendable that Mayor Green has been inspired by the dedication and commitment of Mr. Burrowes and has finally begun to address the concerns of the citizens of our capital city.