Rose Hall Town Council acted outside remit

THE Local Government Commission (LGC) would like to place on record its actions with respect to the report in Stabroek News of Wednesday April 18th, 2018, addressing the Rose Hall Town Council’s moves to ‘hire’ a town clerk.

The Rose Hall Town Council approached the LGC of Guyana seeking permission to hire a town clerk to fill the vacancy for this post within the council. The LGC, in keeping with section 19 of the Local Government Commission Act 2013 (delegation of powers), agreed via letter to delegate to the council and all other local government organs, the authority of recruitment (advertising shortlisting and interviewing) for staff.

However, the commission requires that all local government organs write informing the commission of such vacancies before engaging in the recruitment procedure (advertising, shortlisting and interviewing) and consequent recommendation for appointment by the LGC. The Rose Hall Council was also informed in this letter dated March 21st, 2018, that the local government organs shall ensure that an officer of the LGC is present during the shortlisting and interviewing process. The officer would be an observer of the procedure and would not offer any advice or suggestion unless so directed by the LGC.

We noted that the Rose Hall Town Council executed these delegated tasks and exceeded this clearly outlined mandate by purporting to hire a town clerk, clearly in contravention to the stated delegated functions. The commission wrote the council again on April 10th, 2018, instructing them to rescind this action since the law clearly states in section 13 (2) of the Local Government Commission Act 2013 that:

“The Commission SHALL deal with all matters relating to staffing of local government organs and in particular shall- (a) be responsible for employment, transfer, discipline and dismissal of staff”. It is therefore with serious concern that we observed that the council again disregarded these direct, lawful directives and proceeded to ‘engage’ someone to fill this vacancy.

The LGC of Guyana is committed to ensuring that the letter and spirit of the law as enshrined in the Local Government Commission Act is adhered to, in order to ensure good governance for all. This includes ensuring that all of the local government organs under its purview are held accountable to the statutes and regulations that fall within our mandate.

In keeping with this determination, the Rose Hall Town Council has clearly acted outside of its remit, and has been instructed by letter from the commission to rescind the hiring of any person so appointed to fill the vacant position of town clerk of that municipality, and this vacancy will only be filled upon the consideration and written approval of the commissioners of the Local Government Commission of Guyana as provided for by law.

Yours sincerely,
Regards,

Nickalai Pryce
Secretary 
Local Government Commission

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