ACTING Town Clerk, Sharon Harry-Monroe, said that the issue regarding the preferred chauffeur of Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine was being sorted out and will be concluded on the advice of the Local Government Commission (LGC)

At the Council’s last statutory meeting on Monday, Mayor Narine expressed that he felt his life was in danger because he was being forced to work with a chauffeur that he was not comfortable with.

Harry-Monroe had put forward that the City Council already had two chauffeurs who cannot simply be put out of employment and that a third chauffeur was not catered for in the structure of the municipality.

She had also vouched for Narine’s current chauffeur stating that he had been in the Council’s employ since 1994.

However, in an invited comment to this newspaper the mayor expressed: “When I was elected mayor, I had an organisation second my driver but I kept asking and asking for his employment as chauffeur because I don’t need both a driver and chauffeur; that would cost the council.”

Because of the amount of work he was doing in the City, Narine said he preferred to be with someone with whom he was comfortable.
Narine said he raised this matter with Harry-Monroe since last January and felt like he was being ‘shoved’ around by the administration as former mayors were allowed to bring along their own chauffeurs.

“Why am I given this kind of a hard time at the council administration where the person who drives me is not employed as a chauffeur? I made contact with the Local Government Commission which has indicated to me that the chauffeur can be on a contract and when I leave, he will leave,” Narine said.

On Tuesday, calling a press briefing, the Acting Town Clerk explained that the structure of the municipality catered for two chauffeurs which included one for the Mayor.

“At no time, I as the Acting Town Clerk, would have denied him that privilege…when he indicated to me that he would like to have somebody drive him who he’s comfortable with, we had no vacancy for a driver or a chauffeur because we would have had a chauffeur in place. However, he would have indicated that the person would have been seconded and at no time we would have denied him that,” she said.

She noted that because the structure only catered for two, in keeping with her duty to give advice, the matter required the consideration of the LGC.
“What I want persons to know is that I’m currently having it resolved. I’ve spoken with the Mayor since and we’ll go forward from there,” she said.

“The Council would have made the decision to take on [the Mayor’s preferred driver] as a chauffeur so I’ll have to take that to the Local Government Commission and upon its response then we will go ahead to employ that person if it is approved.”

While the chauffeur cannot currently be employed in the position under the Council, Harry-Monroe stated that he will receive all the emoluments and benefits that relate to the position.

She said: “I am not here to deny the Mayor what he wants in keeping with Council’s policy and in keeping with the law.”