City Hall has endorsed the ultimatum by Opposition Leader David Granger to have President Donald Ramotar name a date for local government polls and plans to hold a ‘day of reckoning’ next week to express its disgust with the state of affairs in the municipality.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Mayor Hamilton Green said, “The situation has become so absurd that the councillors and many persons of civil society… will next week see a day of reckoning.” He continued, “The government seems unwilling to deal with the situation at City Hall and we want to make it public that this council supports Mr Granger’s demands…, that a clear statement be given by the Ramotar administration about the non-holding of local government elections.”
He added that local government is vital because it allows ordinary people to do things for themselves.
The mayor spoke of an erosion of democracy and regression of civility in Guyana and cited the imposition of Carol Sooba as the Town Clerk (ag) for Georgetown as example. He also stated that there were collusive efforts that permit her unusual actions.
Green went on to mention that discrimination has deepened since the appointment of Sooba. He pointed to the matter involving a $53.6 million tax waiver instructed by the Minister of Local Government, in favour of Ganga Prasad for the Charlotte Street building that once housed the Strand Cinema and is now rented to the Universal Kingdom Church of God. This matter is currently before the courts. He compared it to the objection to the request by the Catholic community for a waiver of taxes for a building used exclusively for charitable purposes and to house and feed the indigent in the community.
In the light of the issues confronting City Hall, the council had moved a motion to send Sooba and City Treasurer Ron McCalmon on administrative leave to facilitate an inquiry of alleged financial impropriety concerning the use of city funds to pay legal fees for a personal matter involving Sooba and the purchase of an expensive sofa for her office.
This had led to the both council and Minister of Local Government Norman Whittaker writing to the relevant bank, the former to change signatories to the accounts of the council and the latter the converse. The bank has since responded to the council stating that it could not change the signatories to the accounts. This the mayor found strange and rude and he accused the legal advisor of the bank of being politically biased.
Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green, pointing to revelations by Sooba that a $25,000 cash float was missing and a recommendation that a departmental shakeup was needed to remedy the problem, said this showed the acting town clerk to be incompetent and lacking vision.
She also chided Sooba again for not lending any resources towards the fight of chikungunya, despite council recommendations to do so.
The press conference concluded just after a representative of the Rastafarian community stood up to express his frustration with the situation at City Hall and to ask how he and his fellow men can become involved in the struggle to remedy the mire in the municipality.
