Auditor General intervention invited on Town Clerk response
THE Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development is not satisfied with the written response, from Town Clerk Yonnette Pluck, on the 2011 Christmas incentives she authorised for some municipal employees. As a result, the Auditor General’s involvement in the matter has been requested.
Pluck had given City Treasurer, Andrew Meredith authority to pay the money at a time when City Hall was unable to have salaries ready for some of the poorest and most hard working category of workers.
The ministry had, subsequently, asked Pluck to provide, in writing, the name of who okayed the payment and, according to Minister within the Ministry, Mr. Norman Whittaker, she submitted the extracts from minutes of previous statutory meetings where the encouragement issue was discussed and, in some instances, agreed.
“We are yet to see the authority for effecting the payment that was made in November,” he told reporters, at the ministry in Fort Street, Kingston, following a meeting with Mayor Hamilton Green and Councillor Patricia Chase-Green, who is performing the duties of Deputy Mayor.
Whittaker confirmed the ministry’s dissatisfaction with how Pluck responded and the other minister, Mr. Ganga Persaud elaborated that the Auditor General’s expertise has been sought to determine the present situation on that and other issues.
Persaud said they are hoping that his advice would help guide their decision.
At a raucous statutory meeting, in answer to the question of who provided the authority for the paying and what facilitated it to a specific group, the embattled Meredith had said a recent amnesty period.
He, then, claimed that the authorisation was from the Finance Committee but that claim was vehemently denied by Councillor Junior Garrett, who is now performing the duties of Chairman.
“Never! We never authorised it. Nowhere in the law says that the Committee could authorise the payments of incentives,” Garrett had shouted.
Councillor Gwendoline Mc Gowan, vociferously, proposed that Meredith be sent home and had accused Mayor Green of “picking up” for him.

DIRTY WORK
Chase-Green said she could have understood if no one in the municipality was paid but what she could not understand was the fact that those who do all of the dirty work did not take home salaries to have a Christmas meal.
Garrett suggested that the extra money that was paid be deducted from the beneficiaries’ entitlement and alleged that what took place was fraud. He said the Treasurer and Town Clerk should be held culpable for signing those cheques and that imprisonment should be involved.
“Immediately, the Treasurer and the Town Clerk should be suspended,” Garrett demanded.
Councillor Ian Andrews said he never heard such a “preposterous and disrespectful” presentation by the Treasurer, an individual whom he once held in high regard. Councillor Hector Stoute said there should be an investigation into the issue and Green agreed, noting that such matters must be put on record, so there could be proper procedures.
Mc Gowan said recording it would not help the situation and maintained that the Treasurer and Town Clerk be relieved of their duties. “We can’t trust him anymore,” she said, referring to Meredith.
Councillor Fitzgerald Agard, who met with much criticism for the comments he offered, said there was no dishonesty involved in the payments and that it was not a case where the council lost anything.