MINISTER of Local Government and Regional Development, Ganga Persaud, yesterday, said Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs) have no authority over elected appointed officials, as he provided an update on the Region Eight ‘no confidence’ motion against the REO. Speaking at a news conference at his office in Georgetown, Minister Persaud responded to reports filed in sections of the media that on July 10 last, a no-confidence motion was moved against Regional Executive Officer (REO), Ronald Harsawack, which was approved by a majority of councillors.
Minister Persaud explained that there were concerns with regard to the manner in which the Regional administration lead by the REO was approaching the resolution to some issues affecting residents within the region. As such, the lack of knowledge by the Regional Chairman regarding the procurement procedures in that Region, coupled with the seemingly lack of knowledge of Regional Administration functions and the guidelines under which they operate, would have contributed to the current state of affair.
“On quite a few occasions I took time off to explain to the Regional Chairman the procurement procedures with regard to how we procure services and award contracts,” the Local Government Minister explained.
He added that the Regional Chairman sought to mislead his Council on a number of issues: the contracts for the roads, the procurement procedure which obtains, and the conscious, willful destruction/vandalism of the water networks in the Region, particularly the Mahdia sub-region.
“Here again the Regional Chairman would have lead the Council to believe that the REO would have mis-represented the situation…there were also small subsidiary administrative issues in which there seem to have been a difference in opinion in representing the situation as it is…those were the basic grounds on which the RDC took the decision,” Minister Persaud explained.
He added that the worst case of misleading thus far, took place when the Chairman led the Council to believe that they had the authority to appoint and decide who should be REO.
“While the RDC in itself can express their dissatisfaction with the performance of any employee, they need to support those dissatisfactions with evidence based on documentation, so that the administration in itself and the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development can seek to intervene, investigate and make a determination,” Minister Persaud said.
In this particular case, there was no documented evidence, regarding the number of allegations which sought to inform the decision (by no-confidence motion). Much of the information which exists differ from that which is in the public domain, he noted.