I refer to the recently published letter from PNC/APNU protesting against the confirmation of the appointment of acting Town Clerk of Georgetown, Ms Sooba. Many citizens who yearn for our city to be run without corruption; without the disorderliness causing business to contract, citizens including the old and sick to suffer terribly, house foundations to be weakened and people’s furniture and equipment to be damaged, citizens were utterly disgusted at the PNC/APNU’s unwarranted protest. This PNC/APNU protest is unacceptable to the citizens of Georgetown:-

1. The committee which interviewed the acting Town Clerk for her appointment had little or no academic qualifications and were highly biased and should not have been permitted to perpetrate their injustice. The members of this interviewing committee had publicly and consistently attacked the acting Town Clerk for exposing corruption such as the embezzlement of the Japanese aid money, the 400 ghost workers who received pay, the millions owed in taxes by the friends and relatives of the interviewing committee which they wanted the Town Clerk to secretly take off the books. In no democratic country would such a biased, incompetent and prejudiced appointment committee be allowed to exist.

2. From its letter, the PNC/APNU seems to be completely ignorant of the bases of personnel appointments. In appointing an officer, the following factors, among others, are taken into account:
(a) Paper qualifications
(b) Experience
(c) Character and Integrity
(d) Work ethic
(e) Length of time an officer has been acting in the position
(f) Success in performance

PNC/APNU must remind itself that paper qualifications are only one of the several factors in assessing applications for employment. The acting Town Clerk scored almost 100 per cent in all the several criteria or factors except paper qualifications; and this caused her to lead by all others by a very wide margin. Indeed, in the Public Service, if an officer acted in a higher position for six months, he automatically qualifies for the higher salary. And if he acts for one year, he automatically is confirmed in the appointment. Acting Town Clerk Sooba has been acting for nearly two years.
3. In the less than two years the acting Town Clerk has been serving, she carried out a revolution in City Hall. She has been successfully battling the endemic theft and corruption, though threatened with violence. She has succeeded in preventing the rubbish contractors striking for lack of pay; City Hall workers are paid on time and do not have the constant threat of being laid off; the massive garbage accumulation in the city is being addressed with encouraging results; revenues are being saved and earned for the first time in 20 years with the promise of financial stability in the foreseeable future. And Town Clerk Sooba has made these achievements and others in the face of constant abuse and threats and undermining by the old time Mayor and City Council mafia.
4. Ms Sooba is within the tradition of the great Town Clerks Elmo Mayers and E.A. Adams and is the fittest and most able Town Clerk for the last 20 years. Her appointment is well and truly within the laws and constitution of Guyana and has been most democratically done.
5. The citizens are behind Ms Sooba since we want relief from the man-made sufferings imposed on us by the M&CC. We call upon APNU to be positive and constructive and instead of attacking Ms Sooba, to help to bring relief to the city and to call upon the Mayor and City Council and the Government to clear the city drains and kokers and get the garbage build-up under control.

P.I. PETERS