The Interim Management Committee (IMC) Chairman of the Linden Town Council, Orrin Gordon, is of the view that matters of concern being expressed by the administration are just subterfuge, as he expressed serious reservations about the reported $200,000 which remained from its 2009 annual $10M government subvention from the Ministry of Local Government. At the same time, Gordon said the Town Clerk had stated that the Linden Town Week Committee had overspent some $600,000; but based on his assessment, Gordon felt that there were problems with the Linden Town Week accounting system.
Based on what he knows, Gordon indicated some “$3,323,000 was handed over to the treasury, which represented Town Week revenues garnered from road stalls, sponsorship, branding etc….expenditure was $2,978,745, so there should have been a balance of some $800,000.”
Addressing reporters at a press conference on Monday in the council’s chambers, Gordon said that the subvention was not being properly accounted for.
Looking at the $10M which the municipality received from government, Gordon declared: “When we received the first $5M, we told the Town Clerk (Patrick Inniss) to buy a truck costing some $4.3M, and another $1M was to be expended on road works.”
The IMC Chairman, however, remarked that in excess of $1M was spent on the road works, leaving only about $3.6M, which could not buy the truck. According to him the Council had no knowledge of this until it was revealed at a Finance Committee Meeting.
He said because of that, “I immediately said stop everything you’re doing. We’ve got to investigate and clear this up before we move forward.”
Gordon reported that the Interm Management Committee agreed that the other $5M be used to buy the truck. Following this, another decision was to be made subsequently as to what would be done with the remaining monies.
Maintaining his views about poor accounting, Gordon said approximately $4.4M should be left from the $10M, but the $600,000 issue of overspending is being used to cover the shortage.
In addition, Gordon said the truck acquired almost three months ago by the Town Council is yet to be put into operation, while council continues to receive complaints about garbage piling up and not being removed.
He stressed that the Council has more than enough capacity to take care of the town’s garbage.