By Jeff Trotman
Region Ten Chairman Sharma Solomon has voiced concern over Minister in the Ministry of Finance Juan Edghill holding political meetings in the region under the guise of ministerial meetings.
At a meeting of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) on Thursday, Solomon said that the regional administration was not informed of the minister’s recent visits and meetings in the region and he also called on the Regional Executive Officer to account for the presence of her juniors at the events.
Solomon said he was “strongly condemning the action of government ministers coming into this community under the pretext of (holding) ministerial meetings and not even informing the council and the administration by way of letter.” He added, “It should be strongly condemned as political gimmicks that are taking place in our community.
He asked the RDC councillors to support him to dub the meetings that were held by Minister Edghill “as what they are –political meetings.” He also cautioned Region Ten public servants to be mindful of their attendance and pronouncements at such meetings.
PPP/C Councillor Compton Fraser then asked Solomon if he was “saying that a minister of the government has no right to talk to the people in this community or any community.” Solomon responded by saying that he never said that.
“…These meetings are community meetings where he meets the communities and have discussions with them,” Fraser said.
Solomon said nevertheless courtesy dictates that the council should have been informed of such meetings.
“He’s a minister of the government,” Fraser insisted. “And I feel a minister is free to go anywhere in this country. Now, are you saying that a public servant cannot attend a meeting after working hours? Another thing about the laptops – the distribution of the laptops was very peaceful and orderly.”
At this point the other councillors heckled Fraser and Solomon said, “Councillor, I don’t think you read what was said by the minister; that the programme was discontinued because of the mob mentality.” Councillor Fraser then picked up his attaché case and documents and stormed out of the meeting.
Solomon had earlier noted that a One Laptop Per Family programme distribution exercise in the region was done without a proper system in place. “I want to go on record as saying to people go take your computers. It’s your tax dollars. However, I will strongly criticize the process. It was so wildly done – no system. People photocopied four, five forms and sold them for $60 and $40,” he noted.
APNU Councillor Charles Sampson said that when he went to the distribution centre on Monday, he saw confusion. He added that when he went back on Tuesday, he saw even more confusion and he was convinced that the distribution was a disaster and systems could have been put in place to avoid that confusion. Sampson added that he knows of people, who received as many as three laptops and sold them immediately after receiving them.
Solomon said the organisers of the process “were so wild and when they created that unstable environment, they turned around and called the people hooligans and mobs…. So, now, an entire community stands to suffer because the minister and those who were responsible failed to work with our stakeholders. We could have had the system run through our churches, through our different institutions even through the RDC. But no, it was not a ministerial arrangement. It was a political gimmick which backfired and the minister now labels the entire Linden as a bunch of hooligans and mobs.”
Public officers
At the meeting on Thursday, Solomon called on the Regional Executive Officer (REO) Yolande Hilliman to explain the status of regional officers at the recent series of meetings that were held by Edghill in the region. He noted that he saw on television that at one of the meetings the matter of roads came up and an officer said that the RDC was responsible for monitoring the road construction but the relevant councillor was not at the meeting to defend himself. “Whereas the officer is a functionary of the council and was acting in contradiction of the council at this meeting in promoting a matter–and this is Mr. (Devon) Bremner (Assistant Regional Executive Officer),” he said.
“I’d like to ask the Clerk of Council of the status of both the Deputy REO (Maylene Charles-Stephen) and the assistant REO at these meetings and I would like to recognise also the policy: any Minister coming to this region should have the decency of informing the council and the chairman
of their presence in the region. Moreso, when they are discussing matters of development. It is this council that makes requests on behalf of the people for these developmental works to occur and if they are not happening then when those meetings are held – ministerial meetings, or those political meetings – then we must be there to defend ourselves if they are ministerial meetings,” he added.
Solomon said it was totally disrespectful to the council to have officers present at these meetings and commenting on matters of the council in the absence of councillors. He then told Hilliman that the officers fall under her responsibility since she was the REO and she should admit that she was unaware of the officers’ involvement before the council moves to suspend the standing order so that the DREO could be asked to give an explanation of her attendance and involvement at the meetings.
“We have people, who are running around this region, lying to our constituents about what is happening in this council and we are not given the opportunity to defend ourselves,” Solomon said. “They said that monies were sent back without councillors being there to say if that is so or not.”
According to him, if that was bad, it was worse that regional officers were present when such allegations were made and tacitly supported them by remaining silent and not refuting them. “That seems more political than ministerial to me.”
Councillor Sampson added that there are people who work in the regional system and violate the public service rules by participating in meetings of a political nature. He said that sometimes he sympathises with the officers “because if they don’t toe the line, they can come under some pressure.”
He suggested that general elections may be around the corner and people are coming to Region Ten to campaign under the guise of holding ministerial meetings. “So, how do we deal with this issue?” he asked. “How do we convince the officers of this region, who are public servants that they should not attend these meetings?”
He said the members of the government who hold such meetings should be sensible enough to tell the public servants to stay away from the meetings and if they attend such meetings, they cannot do anything in an official capacity. “You can’t go to the meetings and make pronouncements in the absence of the relevant technical people.”
APNU Councillor Stanley Collins said that as an experienced councillor he is aware that if a minister goes to any region without informing the RDC of the meetings that he would hold, the minister is doing political work. The former WPA activist added: “Any public servant got to be careful of going on any platform whether it is under bottom house or publicly with any minister who did not inform the chairman of the meeting. Once you do that, you put yourself in problems because I can clearly remember at one time, Mr. Hoyte asked Mr. (Ovid) Morrison (then Region Ten REO) to remove from the stage because he was a public servant and he cannot be on the stage when a political meeting was going on. The Chairman then said: “Well, Mr. Hoyte and those people were people with class, who understood how things should be done separately.”
