Mayor never requested ministerial intervention
– says Local Government Minister
MINISTER of Local Government and Regional Development, Mr. Ganga Persaud said, yesterday, that Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green has never, through his office, written him to request any form of intervention, disciplinary action or sanction against any of the three officers currently implicated in major irregularities at City Hall. The minister made the statement yesterday, on the sidelines of a training seminar that was organised to assist officers in the local government sector that have responsibility for work related to roads maintenance.
Green had claimed, at a press conference in his office recently, that Minister Persaud and Minister within the Ministry, Mr. Norman Whittaker failed to act in line with ‘propriety and protocol’ by not engaging him over serious municipal issues that surfaced in the ‘Burrowes Report.’
The Mayor charged that the Ministers chose to engage the very three officers (Town Clerk Yonnette Pluck, City Treasurer Andrew Meredith and City Engineer Gregory Erskine) who are at the centre of the Council’s concerns.
In normal circumstances, Green said the Ministers should have sent him a copy of the report but he feels that a very “myopic” approach has been taken with regard to the compilation.
Minister Persaud, speaking yesterday, said he is not one to use opportunities to throw blame and point fingers. “I don’t do that. I think we can better spend our time. We just cannot have these outbursts as often whenever there is something wrong.”
He sought to clarify that the Ministry, at the time of issuing the Town Clerk with the assessment compiled by Mr. Keith Burrowes, asked Pluck to ensure that Green gets a copy.

MERELY REQUEST
Persaud said he did not merely request that she show it to the Mayor.
Lately, the Ministry asked Commissioner of the Inquiry, Mr. Keith Burrowes and his team to provide an evaluation of the state of the recommendations they made.
Burrowes was named Commissioner by former Local Government Minister Kellawan Lall and tasked to investigate the operations at City Hall. The computation on that investigation was submitted to the relevant agencies over a year ago.
However, the assessment was put into another document and a copy was handed to Town Clerk Pluck last Thursday morning, at the Ministry, just before Burrowes briefed the media on some of his findings and the Council was asked to respond by June 20.
The Mayor said he has had cause to write President Donald Ramotar, in the past, on what he called the “inappropriate behaviour” of the Local Government Ministers.
He said, though, that he accepts the new report in its entirety and disclosed that he has already written to the Auditor General, seeking to have a thorough forensic audit conducted on the related sections of the municipality.
Green repeated his calls for local government reforms to be pursued so that elections could be held and accused the government of not being truly interested in holding them.
He said, prior to this estimation he, like the ministers, was aware that none of what was recommended in the Burrowes advisory was being implemented, but claimed the Council did not have the capacity to discipline the responsible officers. (Telesha Persaud)