THE Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown (M&CC) have failed to act on the advice offered by Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Mr. Norman Whitaker, to consult with the citizens of Georgetown on how the $21M+ Government subvention should be spent.

In an invited comment to the Guyana Chronicle, Minister Whittaker noted that the M&CC has not yet submitted budgetary proposals for the $21M+ Government subvention, and he said this was due to the Council not being able to establish a duly constituted statutory meeting because certain councillors refuse to recognize Carol Sooba as the Acting Town Clerk.

The minister said, “I’m not going to make available (to the M&CC) any portion of that money without the consultation of the people.
And budgetary proposals have to be approved by the Council.

The M&CC have, on numerous occasions, flouted the law in attempts to establish an executive mayoralty which bypasses the constitutional provisions of the Minister of Local Government on the regulation of daily affairs of the municipalities in the absence of the Local Government Commission.

Minister Whittaker asserted that he does not support the position of an executive mayor because there ought to be a division between the City Council, which is reposed with the power to make policy, and the Administration, which is headed by the Town Clerk. “We should only seek to work together”, he said.

Acting Town Clerk and Chief Executive Officer of the City Hall Administration, Ms. Carol Sooba, in an invited comment to this publication, said: “The Minister advised that the Mayor and Council should engage citizens on what they think the subvention should be used for”, adding, “the Mayor and Council decided that they should not take the advice because they are a duly elected council; [but] they are not functioning as they ought to.”

Sooba recalled that, in 2013, the proposals also had not been submitted on time because of “confusion”. “They wanted to include provision for local Government elections and a whole lot of things that are not budgetary”, Sooba said.

She mentioned that the Finance Committee had met in late 2013 to discuss the budget proposals, for which the Council offered recommendations as they participated in the budgetary discussions.

“When the report was put up for the statutory meeting to pass the budget, they [the Mayor and Councillors] refused,” the acting Town Clerk related.

Budgetary proposals for subvention from the Central Government are discussed at the level of the Finance Committee chaired by City Councillor Mr. Junior Garrett. The proposal is then drafted into a report, which is approved by the Council during the duly constituted statutory meeting in the presence of the Mayor, City Councillors, and the Town Clerk.

“Myself and Councillor Garrett advised the Minister what happened”, Sooba said. She added, “They continued with the business, and they held another meeting which sought to make adjustments [for extra allocations to be] included in the budget. They wanted to include $15M for pensions and increased allowances”.

The acting Town Clerk observed that, during that time, the budget proposals were submitted but were not approved by the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development because of the illegality of the additional budgetary allocations which the M&CC had annexed to the proposed allocations.

“The councillors were not entitled by law to pensions and increased allowances. [That] would have to be approved by the Local Government Minister,” Sooba asserted.

On May 6, 2014, during an illegally constituted Extraordinary Meeting of the Mayor and Councillors, Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green and Councillors had sought to remove Carol Sooba as the Town Clerk, and installed Public Relations Officer (PRO), Royston King illegally.

At that meeting, a motion was moved by Councillor Gregory Fraser, and seconded by Councillor Eon Andrews, to remove Councillor Garrett as the Chairman of the Finance Committee because, they contended, he had “exceeded his authority and abused the position.” The Council moved to replace Garrett with Andrews, who had seconded the motion. The motion was not carried because Sooba, acting in the capacity of Town Clerk, had not been present.

“Garrett is an accountant by profession, and he was supportive of [myself and] the administration, and so he would not get involved in any illegality. Because of that, they needed to have that committee not functioning, because they needed a financial crisis. Garrett, however, was not legally removed, since there was no substantial evidence to prove the claims (laid against him),” Sooba stated.

(By Derwayne Wills)