Police have been called in to do a criminal investigation of City Hall’s operations, after a recent probe suggested major fraud, including an inflated payroll and payments to front companies.
The involvement of the Guyana Police Force was revealed yesterday when the Mayor and City Council called an emergency statutory meeting, where discussions were expected to be held about whether three senior city officers would be sent on leave to facilitate an internal investigation.
“We made clear recommendations to the [Local Government] Minister [Ganga Persaud] because we had clear recommendations from the Chairman of the investigation, Mr. Keith Burrowes, who in his letter said please note that the findings of the Ramon Gaskin report suggest corruption and further intrusive work will be necessary. The council is required to have persons implicated in the report proceed on leave. We accepted that recommendation and wrote to the Minister and well, nothing has happened,” Chairman of the Personnel and Training Committee, Councillor Oscar Clarke said when called upon by Mayor Hamilton Green to share his views.
Green had previously told this newspaper that he had written to Persaud and indicated that he welcomed an in-house investigation. He had also requested that the Town Clerk Yonette Pluck-Cort, the City Treasurer Andrew Meredith and the City Engineer Gregory Erskine be sent on leave to facilitate the investigation once there was agreement on it. Green wrote a follow-up letter after no response was received but again, the council said they got no feedback.
“This is a situation with a difference. There are allegations of corruption against three senior officers of the council. In a recent press conference, the minister said clearly that he is not responding to the council. I think he has to give us the respect we earn, because we give him respect,” Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green told reporters.
The council also proposed to have the officers proceed on their annual leave, which is due to them, so in that time an investigation would be conducted, but there was no response from the minister.
“We sent that recommendation off to the minister. That is being courteous. But the minister did not respond to two letters sent by council. In the press, we saw the minister saying he will not accept the recommendation of council asking that they proceed on leave and he is going to hand over the files and documentations for police investigation,” she noted.
Chase-Green said she, along with the entire council, welcomes the police investigation. “We have no objection but we have a difficulty with the minister not wanting to respond to the council. We were elected, we are doing a job in here and by right, if we respect the minister, he should respect us… professionally. We need to be straight with each other. We’ve responded to you, we’ve asked you something, respond to us. Don’t just ignore us,” she emphasised.
When contacted yesterday, Minister in the Ministry of Local Government, Norman Whittaker said that he was only aware of one letter being received from City Hall. He pointed out that the Ministry could not take the course of action recommended by City Hall until further inquiries are conducted. As a result, he said, the police are investigating.
Whittaker further stated that the Ministry has forwarded the Ramon Gaskin report to the police, while officials within the Ministry are still perusing source documents.
Meanwhile, Chase-Green noted that the council has the capacity to send the officers home on annual leave and this decision, she said, will be made today when councillors again meet. “Tomorrow [today] we will have a specially convened statutory meeting to deal with some of the issues. Whether or not the officers will be sent on leave will be determined tomorrow when we meet,” she said.
The Deputy Mayor recalled some time ago when the former Local Government Minister, Kellawan Lall sent an officer on leave in order to proceed with an investigation of alleged corruption. “That officer was Mr. Meredith and he came back on duty after his annual leave. There was no report sent to us as if the alleged corruption was verified. We are still in wonderland as to what happened… Mr. Kellawan Lall had not responded to that. In this instance, the credibility of all officers and the council, we welcome the investigation,” she noted.
Chase-Green also pointed out that the police force’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is currently investigating an officer of the treasurer’s department for alleged corruption. She explained that it is alleged that the officer deposited a cheque paid to a vendor in his personal account.
“The vendor came to me, I did some inquiries and I was told that the cheque was deposited in the officer’s account. I took it to council and the CID is now investigating that matter. Matters, when [they are] brought to the council’s attention, we take steps. So, I don’t understand the minister saying that the mayor has now awakened from his slumber,” she stated.
