Dear Editor,
I refer to a recently published letter from the People’s National Congress (PNC)/A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) protesting against the confirmation of the appointment of Town Clerk of Georgetown Carol Sooba.
Many citizens who yearn for our city to be run without corruption, without the disorderliness of street vending, without the massive garbage accumulation, and without the flooding causing business to contract, citizens including the old and sick to suffer terribly, house foundations to be weakened and people’s furniture and equipment to be damaged, citizens were utterly disgusted at the PNC/APNU’s unwarranted protest.
This PNC/APNU protest is unacceptable to the citizens of Georgetown:
* The committee which interviewed the then acting town clerk for her appointment had little or no academic qualifications and were highly biased and should not have been permitted to perpetrate their injustice. The members of this interviewing committee had publicly and consistently attacked the acting town clerk to secretly take off the books. In no democratic country would such a biased, incompetent and prejudiced appointment committee be allowed to exist.
* From its letter, the PNC/APNU seems to be completely ignorant of the bases of personnel appointments. In appointing an officer, the following factors, among others, are taken into account:
(a) Paper qualifications
(b) Experience
(c) Character and integrity
(d) Work ethic
(e) Length of time an officer has been acting in position
(f) Success in performance
PNC/APNU must remind itself that paper qualifications are only one of the several factors in assessing applications for employment. The acting town clerk scored almost 100 per cent in all the several criteria or factors, except paper qualifications, and this caused her to lead all others by a wide margin.
Indeed, in the public service, if an officer acted in a higher position for six months, he automatically qualifies for the higher salary. And if he acts for one year, he automatically is confirmed in the appointment. Sooba had been acting for nearly two years.
* In the less than two years the acting town clerk had been serving, she carried out a revolution in City Hall. She has been successfully battling the endemic theft and corruption, though threatened with violence. She has succeeded in avoiding the rubbish contractors striking for lack of pay. City Hall workers are paid on time and do not have the constant threat of being laid off.
The massive garbage accumulation in the city is being addressed with encouraging results. Revenues are being saved and earned for the first time in 20 years with the promise of financial stability in the face of constant abuse, threats and undermining by the old time Mayor and City Council (M&CC) mafs.
* Sooba is within the tradition of the great town clerks Elmo Mayers and E A Adams, and is the fittest and most able town clerk for the last 20 years. Her appointment is well and truly within the laws and Constitution of Guyana and has been most democratically done.
The citizens are behind Sooba since we want relief from the man-made sufferings imposed on us by the M&CC. We call upon PNC/APNU to be positive and constructive and, instead of attacking Sooba, to help to bring relief to the city, to call upon the M&CC and the government to clear the city drains and kokers, and to get the garbage build-up under control.
Yours sincerely,
PI Peters