–requests made for private hearings
Only one member of the public turned up yesterday afternoon at the first hearing of the Commission of Inquiry into the state of affairs in the City Treasurer’s and Town Clerk’s departments at City Hall.
Commissioner Keith Burrowes said he was a bit disappointed at the turnout, but added that he had already received a number of private submissions and letters and requests for private hearings. Some 12 private hearings are billed for next week, he said.
Burrowes said that based on the information received so far the baseline objectives set out for the inquiry may have to be expanded. He said too that the investigation might have to be broadened to include other departments. However, he declined to comment on which departments he was referring to or what objectives should be added, saying that it was premature to do so.
Meanwhile, Malcolm DeFreitas of DeFreitas and Gonsalves testified at the hearing yesterday. DeFreitas has levelled a number of allegations against City Treasurer, Roderick Edinboro, and by implication Town Clerk, Beulah Williams.
In his detailed presentation, DeFreitas said he was sent demand notices for taxes owed in the sum of $900,000 for property that was no longer owned by his company. The property referred to is the land and dilapidated houses that stood at the corner of Hadfield Street and Sendall Place, one of which collapsed recently, while the other was demolished.
The property was once owned by the company but was acquired by government in 1983, DeFreitas said. His point of contention was that since the property had not been in his company’s ownership for more than 20 years, why would the City Treasurer’s Department send demand notices twice for taxes owed.
He raised a number of other issues concerning other properties currently owned by his family in Charlestown.
DeFreitas said he had been in dialogue with the Town Clerk about the discrepancies. He said that if the acts were not fraud then they were a “deliberate intent to defraud”, coupled with a manipulation of the tax base.
DeFreitas said he was not aware of what was entailed in the “peculiar situation” between the Town Clerk (TC) and Treasurer, but said the TC did nothing following his complaints.
Burrowes said he was surprised at, but encouraged at the interest shown by staff at City Hall, who have been approaching him in private and volunteering information. He said the information received so far pointed to weakness and delay in decision-making, nepotism and mismanagement. He explained also that time would be spent validating the evidence given and added that although the commission has been the recipient of anonymous letters, he was hesitant to use them as evidence.
He also said that the report, which would be issued by the commission at the end of the inquiry, would be a practical one with recommendations and the implications of the changes that are to be made.
The Commission of Inquiry was set up by Minister of Local Government, Kellawan Lall, to investigate the state of affairs at City Hall. A press release from the ministry had stated that the inquiry would be carried out under seven terms of reference: to peruse the Auditor General’s report on the municipality for 2007; to obtain the assistance of knowledgeable persons in conducting the inquiry and to look for irregularities identified in the AG’s report as relates to the town clerk’s office, the office of the City Treasurer, loans to members of staff and others, advances on salaries, irregularities in rates and taxes, municipal bank accounts in commercial banks and restructuring municipal departments and operations.
Burrowes, an economist was appointed the sole commissioner. He is being assisted by a panel comprising Brijlall Ramprashad and Mahindra Ishri of the Ministry of Local Government; Andrew Hicks, the trade union representative; Premchand Dass, Ranwell Jordan and Patricia Chase-Green of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC); George Abrams of the Ministry of Finance and Puran Persaud who is secretary to the commission.
The inquiry was also commissioned to pronounce on any culpability of the Town Clerk and City Treasurer and to make recommendations to the minister. It was set up after a report was submitted to the M&CC by the Auditor General (AG). The report revealed serious breaches in regulations and protocol by the administration of the municipality, particularly within the City Treasurer’s Department. It had examined several areas: wages and salaries, for which records were not being properly maintained; officers being given payment in lieu of leave without proper authority or approval; advances and loans to officers; deduction of officers’ deposits; bank reconciliation statements; assessment and collection of rates and taxes and information systems costs.
The Town Clerk had then issued a statement where she stated emphatically that neither she nor the City Treasurer exceeded their authority in any way. The statement said that it was the collective view of officers that the systems used to adjudge their work were only part of a “wider policy framework of the municipality”. It said that because the systems currently used were not reflective of the correct policies and practices adhered to by the municipality, the actions of officers were seen as inappropriate. If measured against the policies “adopted” to deal with the administrative challenges then the findings of the AG’s report would have been the complete opposite, the report stated.
The next public hearing for the inquiry should be in the next two weeks with changes to the time expected to see a better turnout.