Dear Editor,
I am responding to a Stabroek News story captioned ‘No-confidence vote against Harsawack was not in keeping with council mandate –Local Government Minister’ (May 8). The report said: “The Minister of Local Government Ganga Persaud says that the basis for the no-confidence motion moved by members of the Region 8 Regional Democratic Council (RDC) against the Regional Executive Officer (REO) was inconsistent with the mandate of the council and therefore did not lead to the removal of the officer.”
The Minister’s answer was in response to a written response in Parliament to a question posed by APNU MP and Shadow Minister of Local Government Ronald Bulkan. Mr Bulkan had asked Minister Persaud to inform the National Assembly of the action taken, if any, in relation to the no-confidence motion that had been passed against REO Ronald Harsawack.
In his written response the Minister said that an analysis of the no-confidence motion found it to be inconsistent with the mandate of the council. He said that in in light of the findings, “discussions were held with the Regional Chairman both individually and collectively.”
I want to say that this never happened. I never had any discussion at any time with the Minister concerning the no-confidence motion. As a matter of fact, after the no-confidence was passed against the officer the Minister immediately held a press conference in an effort to mislead the public and misrepresent the situation. He stated that the Regional Democratic Council had no authority over appointed officials. He went on to say that lack of knowledge on the part of the Regional Chairman regarding the procurement procedures in the Region, coupled with seeming lack of knowledge about how the regional administration functions and the guidelines under which it operates, had contributed to the current state of affairs. He added that the Regional Chairman sought to mislead his council on a numbers of issues: the contracts for the roads, the procurement procedure which obtains, etc.
Here again the Minister was misrepresenting the situation. The no-confidence motion had nothing to do with understanding of procurement or road contracts. I am willing to present a copy of the no-confidence motion to the general public. The motion had its basis in several complaints. The council’s decision to move the motion of no-confidence was based on the failure of the REO to cooperate with the council.
As councillors we were elected by the people, and we owe it to the people to ensure that work is carried out that will improve their communities. When government-appointed public servants do not cooperate with the council then the will of the people is not respected. The facts is the government does not recognize the Region 8 RDC, simply because it consists of mostly opposition councillors. The way the Minister sees the Region 8, RDC is as an IMC, and the REO as the IMC chairman; for them the RDC does not exist.
The government is doing everything possible to make the RDC of Region 8, as ineffective as possible. However, I would just like the Minister to know that we will be resolute in our obligations to the electorate of Region 8, and we will not be intimidated by the Minister.
In closing I am calling on the Minister to produce the evidence of where or when I met with him to discuss the no-confidence motion, since he claims that “discussions were held with the Regional Chairman both individually and collectively.”
If he cannot provide the evidence then I am calling on him to do the honourable thing and resign.
Yours faithfully,
Mark Crawford
Regional Chairman
Region 8
