–Region 10 councillors urge SARU

REGION 10 Councillors are calling on the State Asset Recovery Unit (SARU) to investigate how $5M handed over to former Regional Executive Officer (REO) Henry Rodney by residents of Ituni in 2011 had been disposed of.The money, garnered from the sale of scrap iron, should have been used to fund developmental projects in the community, but was placed in a special account with former regional officials being signatories. To date, its location cannot be determined.

The matter was recently raised at the Council, and residents are seeking answers whilst Councillors are asking that an urgent investigation be conducted to ascertain where the fund is located.

Councillor Gordon Callender has asked that an investigation into the whereabouts of this money be conducted earliest, but Regional Chairman Renis Morian, not responding favourably to this request, has posited that it is the responsibility of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) to conduct such a probe.

“This RDC ain’t gave nobody $5 million, so I ain’t investigating $5 million. If NICIL got a case that they gave somebody $5 million, then NICIL got to pursue the case… We don’t have no legal responsibility to pursue anybody for $5 million,” Morian has declared.

This response has been rejected by some councillors, and Councillor Vladimir Glasgow has even attempted to move a motion for the investigation to commence.

“The fact that a previous REO and a previous Chairman are the persons who were responsible for receiving this fund, I strongly believe that we, as the RDC [Regional Democratic Council] which is responsible for making representation on behalf of the people in this region, should look into this matter…. We have a duty as councillors elected by the people of this region,” Glasgow stressed.

The Regional Chairman, however, denied Councillor Glasgow opportunity to move the motion by positing that it was “under any other business”.

A committee was, in 2013, established to investigate the missing funds after residents had called on then Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon for answers. That committee was, however, unable to determine what had happened to the funds, but records revealed that the last withdrawal was made by an employee of the RDC in December 2011 in the sum of $1.2 million.

Councillors serving during the tenure of REO Henry Rodney were forced to move a no-confidence motion against him after there were allegations of his involvement in fraud. Former President Bharrat Jagdeo had, however, responded that he was the only authority able to remove the REO, since he had appointed him. And according to former Councillor Valarie Patterson, the Council was forced to work with the REO under such circumstances.

The Region 10 RDC has, over the years, been subject to fraud on various levels. Currently, three employees are on administrative leave, pending investigation by SARU into misuse of state assets.