THE keenly watched Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the operations of City Hall got underway on Monday with claims of non-payment of salaries and benefits; and ill-treatment and nepotism coming to the fore.

The CoI, headed by Justice (ret’d) Cecil Kennard, is being held at the Critchlow Labour College (CLC) on Wolford Avenue. The first witness to take the stand was 58-year-old retired M&CC worker Jardine Hope. She stated that she is yet to be paid retroactive salary increases and pension increases. Hope, who racked up 35 years of service to the council, was previously employed as the Supervisor of M&CC’s South Road Daycare facility up to 2015.

She told the inquiry that although she received gratuity upon retirement in 2015, she has not yet received retroactive payments for the period of January to May 2015.
Hope spoke to the Town Clerk as well as Deputy Town Clerk, Sharon Harry on the issue during a fire drill which was in session when she visited the M&CC but the matter did not progress towards a solution.

Meanwhile, the woman’s claim for pension increases is based on the increase in pension given by the government in 2017. “My 2017 money that the government has for pensioners, we only got the increase in June month but we didn’t get the back pay from January to December 2017 money,” she explained, later adding:

“When we go down to City Hall and we inquire about our pension Town Clerk would say [that] he has to pay his staff first before pensioners get their money and when we go and find out anything they say ‘you’re not on the pay slip anymore, you’re a pensioner.”
A similar testimony was made by 56-year-old Allison Collins, a former Supervisor at the M&CC Day Care facility in East Ruimveldt who worked with City Hall since 1984. Collins retired in July 2017 and, although she is receiving her pension, she is yet to receive gratuity for her over 33 years of service. In addition, she stated that she is owed retroactive payments for increases in salaries the years 2015 and 2016.

Mistreatment
Also taking the stand was 42-year- old Stone Depo Supervisor, Julian Orgista who has worked at City Hall from August 1995 to date and believes that he has been badly treated by the council’s management.

In explaining, Orgista detailed that from October 28 to December 2, 2013, a period of 35 days; he acted as Assistant Town Clerk but is yet to be paid for his services.

The man stated that he approached the M&CC Administration on several occasions in the past about the matter and when these avenues failed under the governance of the then Town Clerk, Carol Sooba, Orgista said he raised the matter again with King in 2015. “I approached the Town Clerk Mr. Royston King in 2015 and he said to me “Julian I cannot help you”,” Orgista said.

Questioned further on his relationship with King, the man added: “He’s not such a person that you can reach and talk and share and that kind of thing. You really have to catch him in a good mood to sit with you so that he can listen. He doesn’t really have the time, most times.”

M&CC Sewerage Rodder, 59-year-old Kenrick Hamilton has worked for the body in question for over 20 years but states that as an unfixed worker he receives limited to no benefits. “The fixed workers does come off at 55 [retirement] and the unfixed workers got to work until 65 without any benefits…we don’t get leave passage, we don’t get mileage, we don’t get no benefits at all,” Hamilton said.

He added that the majority of M&CC’s unfixed workers are attached to the Guyana Labour Union but the body and the City Council are currently playing the blame game. Hamilton is a known spokesperson for injustice towards workers and first took the matter to several levels of authority and eventually the Social Protection Ministry instructed M&CC to “put themselves in order.” However, Hamilton said that this only led to certain persons being converted to the status of fixed workers.

“From 2015 to now, it’s only a selected few who have been put on the fixed and if you really check it, the set who come on at City Hall from 2015…when you check the roots its either aunty, uncle, cousin, under fixed and people who does do the nasty work can’t be on the fixed. Just now I will be 60…it breaking me heart to know that…I can’t get nothing,” the man said emotionally.

Compensation
Emotions continued to run high at the afternoon segment of the CoI where 56-year-old former Sanitation Worker, Alice Brant requested pension benefits and compensation for an injury she acquired on the job.

?In January 2015, during the evening hours, Brant slipped on a chain connected to a wheel barrow in the passageway at the Bourda Market which injured her foot and eventually led to her being diagnosed with a scraped spine. Brant now depends on a walking stick and daily medication and, although she followed the necessary process at the M&CC and it was recommended by the doctor that she conduct “light duties,” she was dismissed in 2017 “due to the sickness.”

Adding to this, although she received $766,128 as severance pay, she is yet to receive her pension scheme monies and retroactive payments for 2015 and 2016. “In January 2018 I went back to find out about my pension scheme money and I was told by the Council Welfare that GRA has to send me letter with the amount. So, I told him I didn’t throw my money with GRA, I threw it with the insurance broker so how could they send me a letter? I have to receive a letter coming from the Council through the insurance broker,” said Brant who previously worked at the City Council for 22 years.

Bourda Market vendors: 36-year-old Melissa Roberts and 52-year-old Jacquline Hunter added their public statements to the inquiry as well. Hunter, a vendor for over 40 years, is claiming compensation to rebuild her two stalls which were demolished in September 2015 incurring some 100,000 in damages to her beverage items as well as a 46-inch flat screen television.

Roberts relayed under oath that in July 2018 she was locked up at the City Constabulary from 11am to 2pm for refusing to remove her fruit stand from the Bourda Market, Robb Street location. After being released and still refusing to dismantle her stands which served as her livelihood, Roberts stated that her some 250,000 worth in fruits were confiscated by the constabulary.

After being asked to visit King on several occasions which were postponed, the woman said that although she was given the go ahead to resume vending in the location, her fruits eventually perished with no remorse or compensation from King. Both of the women stated that prior to this, they religiously paid their fees to the Council and have the receipts to prove it. Hunter added that during the demolition process, “Royston King treat us like dogs.”

October 12th has been given as the deadline for hearings coming from the public while the Inquiry will come to a conclusion on October 31. Justice Kennard has stated that the CoI is aimed at investigating the financial affairs of the City Council; non-payments of benefits to employees of the council; failure to remit NIS contribution and PAYE; the ?issuance of contracts; the manner in which the motion of no confidence against the Town Clerk was dealt with and the mismanagement of funds.