The election of a new Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to continue the proceedings at City Hall has created a stir of opinions about former members securing new positions, despite being under scrutiny for grave financial mismanagement during the recently concluded Commission of Inquiry (CoI).
Among those individuals is the outgoing Mayor Patricia Chase Green and according to former Presidential Advisor, Ramon Gaskin, who had previously audited the M&CC, judging from the outgoing Mayor’s “tainted” reputation, she should not be on the Counncil’s Finance Committee.
Gaskin noted that those who were placed under the spotlight for gross mismanagement should not have been offered and accepted any position until the Local Government Commission (LGC) makes a pronouncement on the CoI report.
Chase Green was recently elected to serve as the Vice Chairwoman of the Finance Committee of the Council. Gaskin added that Chase Green along with the embattled Town Clerk Royston King, and all other staffers who were named in the CoI are innocent until proven guilty by the LGC.
“I think she cannot avoid the suspicion of the people that [everything] was financially improper. She was part and parcel of all of that with Mr King and some other people. For that reason, she should not have been on the Council and we will have to see what the Local Government Commission thinks about the report and how much of it will go to the Police to prosecute. Until that is done, none of them should present themselves for leadership. I believe they’re all tainted but innocent until proven guilty,” Gaskin added.
The eligibility of senior officials to continue working at the Council was also questioned since Chairman of the CoI, retired Justice Cecil Kennard would have made some harsh pronouncements about the reality of management of City Hall.
Recommendation
Following the CoI, retired Justice Kennard made a list of recommendations and among them he called on the LGC to enforce disciplinary measures against senior staffers of the Council, with the Town Clerk leading for gross misconduct.
Gaskin maintained that City Hall continues to emit signals of incompetence and corruption. Adding to that, the preliminary findings of the report undoubtedly made it clear the need for new persons to fill the shoes of Councillors and members of the Finance Committee.
According to Justice Kennard, evidence presented before the Commission gestured the outgoing Mayor and Town Clerk were not working collectively to meet the needs of the city.
“I’m convinced that the Town Clerk and the Mayor are not working in the best interest of the city…To sum it all, most of the woes of the City Council have been due to neglect and mismanagement by the top officers of the Council,” Kennard was quoted as saying during his presentation to the LGC.
As it relates to the new Mayor, Ubraj Narine, Gaskin informed that citizens are checking to determine what new measures will be implemented to eliminate the “corruption”, given that obligations of Georgetown should be wholly fulfilled. He also acknowledged the fact that Narine, who will commence duties from January 1, 2019, hasn’t been very forthcoming in disclosing his strategy and should understand his commitments.
“I will have to see what is his programme to deal with the mess that’s in the city there; the financial problems which City Hall, the corruption, the overstaffing, all these things. I would like to hear how he plans to go about it and how he plans to go about his work. He hasn’t spoken much about it and I would like to hear about him. He has an obligation to the people of this city,” the former Presidential Advisor stated.
Narine, who represents Constituency One, secured 21 votes in his favour and was elected accordingly as the Mayor. The Council elected seven persons to charge the Finance Committee, comprising Patricia Chase Green, Yvonne Ferguson, Ivelaw Henry, Oscar Clarke, Trichia Richards, Yvonne Ferguson and Bisham Kuppen.
