– Commission of Inquiry hears

CECELIA Richards on Wednesday appeared before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the operations of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to express how actions on the part of Town Clerk Royston King forced her out of work and constantly result in violence against her on the Number 44 minibus park.

Richards is secretary to the University of Guyana (UG) Minibus Association, which falls under the purview of the United Minibus Association.

The CoI, being presided over by Justice (ret’d) Cecil Kennard at the Critchlow Labour College on Woolford Avenue, heard how in a move to victimise and bully certain ‘handpicked’ minibus operators, King sent his agents to threaten lock up, or in other instances, to impound vehicles.

According to Richards, she owns and operates a Route 44 minibus with her husband. Back in May 2016, city constables appeared at the park demanding that each bus pay $200 per day. Some 65 buses were working on the park at the time. “This was never announced to us prior, but we were told that the money is to facilitate parking there,” she said.
The park in question is located on Regent Street, between Avenue of the Republic and Hincks Street.

The minibus operators contacted the City Constabular, but were referred to the City Engineers Department. “No one could say why the fee was being charged. But we started paying, because if we didn’t, the constables would want to lock us up or impound our vehicle. We continued paying this fee until this year,” Richards said.
On May 19 this year, things changed again, to the ire of the minibus operators. “We found the park marked ‘Industry only.’ Although we have a contract with UG, we also do the Industry route. So we joined the line as usual,” Richards recalled.

Two constables went up to Richards and other operators and told them they had to move. The constables provided no explanation. “We noticed that nine Industry buses were allowed to use the said park. We wondered why the 45 other buses were asked to move.”
Going to meet the town clerk multiple times yielded no positive results and no one could provide the operators with any reason for the new development. The nine buses which were allowed to continue working, though, were allowed to see King whenever they wanted, Richards said.

KING’S INSTRUCTION

The constables reported that they had received orders directly from King.
Officers from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure went to visit the park and were confused, Richards said, because it is the ministry which is responsible for markings on the road.
Richards said at this point, she was very concerned about the aggressive, violent behaviour of the nine operators who have exclusive rights to the park and act as though they own it.
She said only the nine buses are allowed to use the free space in the park and that whenever her bus tries to occupy the space, she often becomes a victim of verbal abuse by the operators. In fact, she said on one occasion, one driver drove up beside her bus and blocked the bus door. When she refused to move, he drove in such a way that damaged the entire side of her bus.

Richards said an injunction against City Hall was filed in the interest of being able to go back to using the park as per normal.

Another person who took the stand, 60-year-old Donna Smith of Lot 5 Vlissengen Road, worked with the M&CC for 21 years in the security arm of the City Constabulary.
She was told from the very beginning of her employment that once she reached retirement age, she would benefit from severance pay equal to her years of service, along with a pension scheme to which she contributed from her salary each month.
Smith always knew that she would be able to benefit from both payments. Upon her retirement earlier this year, though, the woman said she received a letter stating that she would be able to receive only one of the payments.

Smith is hoping that the commission will assist her in receiving both of her payments.
A third person to take the stand was 70-year-old Linneth Primo, who worked with M&CC for 16 years in the Markets Department as a sanitation worker.
After retiring in 2008, Primo was told by the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) that she could not receive a pension from them, because the M&CC did not remit payments to them for three years.

Contributions deducted from Primo’s salary by the City Council was not handed over to NIS for the years 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Primo is hoping the commission will get City Hall to pay over the outstanding sums, so that she can begin receiving her NIS pension.