— Councillor Mc Gowan proposes that he be sent home
DEPUTY Mayor of Georgetown, Ms. Patricia Chase-Green has lamented the “lackadaisical” attitude with which officers of the Treasurer’s Department carry out their duties, when it was discovered that monies for urgent medical attention had not been paid over to an employee for over one month. At the fortnightly statutory meeting of City Councillors, held last Monday at City Hall, Chase-Green queried why the money had not been paid over, even after one month had elapsed.
The council employee to whom the money is to be paid, a sluice attendant, was found unconscious at his home and was subsequently rushed to the hospital, where it was ordered that a CAT scan be done on him. When his relatives approached the council for assistance to pay for the scan, the Social Development Committee had approved the granting of $25,000.
The money was never paid over, and this prompted the deputy mayor to suggest that City Treasurer, Andrew Meredith be called to give an explanation.
Meredith came forward to say that he needed about 30 minutes to verify that the requisition had been sent to his department.    He claimed that he had seen nothing to that effect, and offered that it more concerned the Town Clerk’s Department.
Mayor Hamilton Green noted that, had Meredith read the minutes of the meeting before it started, he would have been aware of the issue. He said officers should make it a practice to peruse those minutes out of respect for the council and for the sake of being professional.
Councillor Oscar Clarke commented that the issue had been on the agenda one month ago, and informed that the City Treasurer was informed of it and the payment had been processed. It was therefore unclear why the payment had not yet been made.
Chase-Green asked Meredith to leave the meeting to ensure that the money was paid over to the hospital. Meredith left and then returned to say that the cheque would be brought up shortly for the relevant signatures.
Last December, Meredith similarly came under fire from the council when he paid a Christmas incentive to staff within his department, but failed to have salaries ready before the holidays for some of the poorest and most hard-working categories of employees.
Meredith stated that there were some hiccups in the system, but they were corrected and the other workers should have gotten their salaries by yesterday afternoon.
Nevertheless, Councillor Gwendoline Mc Gowan vociferously proposed that Meredith should be sent home.