…over alleged misconduct
Councillors of the Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) Regional Democratic Council (RDC) have passed their saturation point with Regional Executive Officer (REO) Rupert Hopkinson as they led a picket outside his office on Tuesday calling for his removal. Both the Opposition People’s Progressive Party and the ruling A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition Councillors, united in their call for Hopkinson’s removal. This action followed repeated concerns Councillors have been registering over REO’s conduct and alleged misuse of public funds.
The Councillors told Guyana Times International they opted to picket the REO after they turned up at the RDC Boardroom in Anna Regina for the monthly statutory meeting, only to discover that a ‘junior staff’ was sitting in for the REO, who functions as the RDC’s Clerk and Accounting Officer. Chairman of the RDC, Devanand Ramdatt said the REO has been absenting himself from the RDC meetings without informing the RDC.
The Regional Chairman said Councillors from “both sides of the RDC are very much disappointed with the behaviour of the REO, who “is not working in the best interest of the people of the region.” APNU/AFC Councillors Naithram and Hardat Narine also supported the call for the REO’s removal.
Naithram, during the picketing exercise said the REO is “sabotaging the progress of the region” and is doing work without consulting the RDC. He said too that he and Councillor Narine were both slapped in the line of duty and the REO never took any action even after he won his matter in court. Ram also said that the REO is busy building parks and a gated community while the entire regional machinery needs to be fixed or replaced. He expressed that millions of dollars were lost in the rice industry due to the lack of fixing the access dams.
Non-consultation
Region Two, which is predominantly dependent on agriculture, only has one grader that has been reportedly out of order for several years. One of the main issues the Councillors said would be discussed at the RDC meeting is the submitting of the 2019 Regional Budget Proposals without the final consultation and approval of the RDC.
The elected representatives have expressed much concern over the secretive nature in which the proposal is being formulated. Region Two Vice Chairperson Nandranie Coonjah had in fact written the Finance Ministry on the matter. In the correspondence seen by this publication, she revealed that the region’s budget proposal was ratified but not circulated by REO Hopkinson.
According to Coonjah, this was despite changes being made to line items under regional administration, finance and agriculture. She noted in the correspondence that circulating copies of the ratified budget to the office of the Regional Chairman and Vice Chairman is mandatory.
“We had a meeting with the REO where some of the things he had in the budget weren’t in agreement with the Council. And we had to remove and rectify and send it back for perusal to the RDC… the Regional Chairman and Vice Chairman office. And when they peruse, the Chairman and Vice Chairman will sign off a transmitter statement before it’s presented to the Ministry of Finance,” she said.
Coonjah outlined that they were told that the REO had sent off the budget proposal even though she had not seen it. She even expressed fear that her signature may have been “forged”.
“At our last statutory meeting last month… he told them that they signed off already. Because the meeting that they had, the attendance sheet was signed. But I’m told that a further investigation revealed that the signature we put on the 2018 budget that is what (was) used,” she revealed.
She further informed this publication that when she was invited on September 18 to attend a budget debate, she told the REO that she had no information about the budget as she was not included in the consultations. The PPP/C representative said she emailed not only the Finance Minister but copied the letter to Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan as well, though her letter was “not acknowledged.” Speaking on Tuesday, she told this newspaper that the REO is failing his duties, especially in education and health.
She outlined that the doctors’ quarters in the hinterland were constructed and left unoccupied due to the lack of furnishing. She added that sanitary blocks at schools need to be fixed, noting that the Rest House built at Onderneeming for expectant mothers from the interior needs to be furnished.
The REO had indicated to this newspaper that he will be proceeding on leave. Calls to the REO on Tuesday went unanswered.
