The Local Government Ministry’s decision to install Carol Sooba to act as Town Clerk for the Georgetown Municipality was yesterday met with a protest from city council workers and a union, who said that she was not qualified for the post.
Approximately 25 employees of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) protested in front of City Hall yesterday, expressing their concerns over Sooba’s appointment, after councillors had earlier this week voted for Royston King to fill the post.
King was appointed to act as Town Clerk, after the M&CC on Monday selected replacements to act in the stead of six officers sent on leave to facilitate the police investigation into the city’s operations.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Vice-President of the Guyana Local Government Officers Union (GLGOU) Sherry Jerrick said that they have received several complaints from members about Sooba’s appointment, which led to the protest actions.
“The main reason (for the protest) is the fact that there has been great supersession over the appointment of a town clerk and we have looked at the situation and we have decided to allow the situation to be ventilated,” Jerrick explained.
She added that they have written to the Minister in the Ministry of Local Govern-ment Norman Whittaker requesting that he rethink Sooba’s appointment, but they were yet to get a response.
“We are asking that the minister revisit his decision of the appointment of an acting Town Clerk and the union is not positioning support for any particular employee but rather employees who have Masters, Post Grad Diplomas and Degrees who deserve the job as it is a requirement of the Town Clerk,” Jerrick added.
City Hall’s Environmental Officer Cleveland Davidson said that the post should have been advertised so as to attract applications from suitably-qualified persons.
He noted that the council met and approved King, who he said is “the most qualified person” based on a previous interview. He also noted that King was bypassed when the minister appointed Yonette Pluck-Cort to the post.
“Sooba is not qualified; we do not have a problem with her but we have a problem with her qualification and her appointment means that the city council is being run by an under-qualified person and, in its current state, to let someone who is under qualified to run it is ridiculous,” he added.
Another City Hall employee, Debra Lewis, added her dissatisfaction with the Minister’s decision to appoint Sooba.
“The municipality is aggrieved at the position taken by the Minister of Local Government for the appointment of a Town Clerk. We have employees with University Degrees and worked in the municipality for over a number of years and they are superseded by Sooba,” she said.
She added, “There are other people in the workforce who are competent, capable and qualified to fill the position as Town Clerk of the municipality and if the minister does not rethink we will continue to sit in and protest.”
She dubbed the appointment as one of a political nature and likened it to that of Pluck-Cort. She said, “The council is in a mess because of Pluck-Cort and the minister should rethink his decision because it is in the best interest of the employees.”
Members of the GLGOU had issued a statement on Wednesday calling on the Minister of Local Government to rethink the appointment. The statement added that the move by the Ministry will constitute a “massive suppression” at the municipality and create serious disruption to the work of the council.
When contacted on Wednesday night, Mayor of Georgetown Hamilton Green said that the power of the Local Government Commission lies in the Minister and he had exercised that authority. He refused to comment further but would only confirm that King will not be acting further.
Also speaking to this newspaper on the issue was Chairman of the Markets and Public Health committees, Ranwell Jordan, who posited that the council has every right to appoint officers to carry out the functions of others who have been sent on leave. It is significant, he pointed out, that the only appointment the Minister did not agree with was that of King.
“All the other appointees by council was accepted and this has its genesis, since when to replace Beulah Williams, the council had recommended Royston King to be appointed and there was some rumour going around of Royston’s involvement in ways which the minister did not think it fit that he be Town Clerk and the council was unanimous in its appointment of Royston King then,” he recalled.
Jordan further said that the ministry is making a “huge mistake,” while noting that Sooba was unequipped with the professional background and the administrative experience to manage an organisation such as the municipality, which, he said, at this time needs an administrator.
