THE Mayor and City Council (M&CC) of Georgetown is awaiting the activation of certain processes related to Town Clerk Ms Beulah Williams and City Treasurer Mr. Roderick Edinboro who were sent on administrative leave pending investigations into a fraud at the municipality. This was disclosed yesterday by Public Relations Officer Mr. Royston King during an invited comment at his office.

According to him, Commissioner of Inquiry into the operations of the Georgetown municipality, Mr. Keith Burrowes, had recommended in his report that the services of the two officers be terminated.

However, he offered that the implementation of this recommendation involves certain processes which are within the confines of the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development.

“Therefore, the municipality is awaiting the activation of those processes, but in the meanwhile, the situation with the two officers remains the same at present,” he said.

King said the Local Government Ministry has not yet sent the relevant documents to have their services terminated.

The ‘Burrowes Inquiry” which commenced on September 17, 2008, had its genesis in a report which the Auditor General submitted to City Hall and which highlighted serious breaches in regulations and protocol by the administration of the municipality, particularly within the Treasurer’s Department.

According to the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the inquiry, Burrowes was mandated to conduct an inquiry into irregularities identified in the report as they relate to the office of the Town Clerk, the office of the City Treasurer, loans to members of staff and others, advances on salaries to members of staff, irregularities in rates collection, municipal bank accounts in commercial banks, restructuring municipal departments and operations; to pronounce on the culpability (if any) of the Town Clerk and the City Treasurer, and to make recommendations to the Minister in all the matters enquired into.

The Commission was established under section 307 of the Municipal and District Councils Act, Chapter 28:01, taken in conjunction with the Eight Schedule of the Act, and the members of the panel were Mr. Ranwell Jordan, Ms. Patrica Chase-Green, Mr. Premchand Dass, all City Councillors; Mr. Andrew Hicks, Trade Unionist; Mr. Brijlall Rampersaud of the Ministry of Local Government; and Mrs. Lorene Baird, Deputy Finance Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

In an interview last year, as the compilation of the report was being done, Mr. Burrowes told this newspaper that dismissing the two officers without a thorough and objective inquiry was a very simplistic way of attempting to solve the litany of woes at the Georgetown City Council.

According to him, the investigation surrounded mainly the Auditor General’s findings which were reviewed and, among the major issues that were raised, was the capacity of the Council and lack of proper planning.

In addition, he said no benchmarks were revealed that could have been used to ascertain whether or not the Council had performed.

Burrowes said a number of officers were not clear on their specific mandates, and communication across the board was another issue raised.

According to him, some heads of department only became aware of some of the problems during the probe.

Burrowes said a big difficulty with decision making was also encountered and the departments should have been more strategic in striving for efficiency.

He said one more revelation indicated that there were areas in which there could have been manipulation as there were no clear guidelines|

Burrowes mentioned lack of audits too, noting that the last statements were audited in 2005.

Burrowes observed that while the concluded exercise may have been demoralising to the staff, he is quite certain that the majority is honest, hardworking persons, doing their job the best they can.

In the wake of the concern by Government that public accountability is a necessary adjunct to transparency in the management of the nation’s affairs, Commissioner Burrowes has expressed appreciation at the “hands-off” policy the Government, in particular Minister Lall, had adopted to allow him ample latitude to pursue his mandate freely and effectively, in a professional manner that allowed amplitude in investigative methodologies.