The Ministry of Local Government has withdrawn its recent appointee to the overseer post at the Industry/Plaisance Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) and re-advertised the position after a standoff with residents.
All efforts to contact Local Government Minister Norman Whittaker on the decision were futile since he was at a Cabinet meeting yesterday.
However, Orlando Jardine, who had been appointed to the post, has since been withdrawn.
This decision was made after protests by residents, who said that Jardine wasn’t a fellow villager and didn’t possess the experience to be the overseer.
Residents were also infuriated by the fact that acting Overseer Deborah McDowell, who has been within the NDC for 15 years, was not appointed as the overseer and would have to train the new holder of the post.
McDowell informed Stabroek News that she would be applying for the overseer position.
According to Village Chairman of Plaisance Imtiaz Zafarali, a call was made by Whittaker informing the NDC that Jardine would not be employed. Zafarali further stated that the protests stopped some weeks ago after Whittaker met with members of the Industry/Plaisance NDC and councillors of the Interim Manage-ment Committee (IMC).
He said everything is back to normal and he also informed that McDowell would also be eligible to apply for the overseer position.
Ads were recently placed in the Guyana Chronicle newspaper by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development requesting suitably qualified persons to apply for Overseer positions for six NDCs, including the Industry/Plaisance NDC.
