ACTING Town Clerk Carol Sooba has said she will not comply with any decision made by the Mayor and City Councillors of Georgetown, which she considers contrasting to the laws governing the work and mandate of the municipality.

She made the declaration when she announced to the media last Thursday, her zero tolerance campaign to root out corruption at City Hall.
Sooba said she will not give in to political pressure from certain councillors to engage in any action which may be “below board”, simply because it was decided at a statutory meeting of the Council, as had been asked of her on previous occasions.
She further stated that ever since she was appointed, it has become clear that many of the councillors do not understand their central roles and responsibilities which are delineated in the pertinent legislation.
Sooba said the only option she has when such decisions are made is, by the authority vested in her, to advise the council when it “goes down that road.”
She disclosed that, most times, the Council fails to listen to such advice when it has its own specific agenda.
Sooba explained that she would, usually, have her advice recorded in the minutes of the meetings, so that she would have executed her duties accordingly.

Not implementable
She added that there are cases when some decisions are not implementable but maintained that policy must be decided based on the laws governing the municipality.
Sooba acknowledged that the Mayor is in charge of the Councillors, who, in turn, have a mandate that is separate from that of the Town Clerk and her administration.
She said the two happen to function in collaboration, with the Mayor and Councillors responsible for the policy positions; but the policies that the Mayor and Council make must, at all times, be in sync with the provisions of relevant laws and regulations.
Alluding to the Municipal and District Councils Act, Chapter 28:01, the Local Government Act and other  relevant legislation, Sooba said, sometimes, some of the policies articulated by councillors do not comply with the by-laws of the municipality.
According to her, she has been forced to assert her authority because of the continued attacks being made on her office in the media, by councillors, who are no longer managing to control the administration of the Council, making spurious and outright legislatively wrong decisions.

Bureaucratic inefficiency
She remarked that, upon her appointment, she found a Council which appeared to be in a state of disrepair and suffering from bureaucratic inefficiency.
The Council failed to collect a large amount of substantial resources in the form of taxes, while attempting to function as a loans institution for workers who, many times, never repaid monies borrowed.
She revealed that, since she was appointed, the Council has managed to consistently pay workers on time, reduce debt owed to statutory agencies, while paying off millions owed to the National Insurance Scheme and the Guyana Revenue Authority, as well as several garbage contractors.
Sooba expressed her commitment to getting the Council back in order, maintaining that her zero tolerance approach to corruption is likely to significantly aid the work being done within the administration.