Dear Editor,
We, at the Mayor and City Council are deeply troubled by the continuously rancorous behaviour of the government-imposed Town Clerk (ag), Ms Carol Ryan Sooba. It is affecting the council’s management systems which are necessary to deliver core municipal services to citizens, as well as the good governance of the Georgetown municipality.
At our last statutory meeting held Monday, January 12, 2015, Ms Sooba vented her spleen in public, calling the Mayor and Councillors all sorts of names. Not satisfied with that she informed the Mayor of Georgetown in a loud and offensive tone that he should have been in jail by now. This was carried by the Guyana Chronicle in its issue of January 13, 2015; no surprise there.
In which organization or corporation could a public officer be allowed to speak to the chairman of the board in this fashion? The answer: only at the Georgetown City Council.
We doubt that any minister of this government would tolerate that rude and lawless behaviour from a Permanent Secretary. Yet the Minister of Local Government, Mr Norman Whittaker, one of Ms Sooba’s handlers, refuses to even rebuke her about her obnoxious behaviour. In fact, the Minister has been going out of his way to defend Ms Sooba. We are mystified by this strange action of the Minister.
In the past we have written volumes to the Minister about this officer’s behaviour; but there has been not a word from him on the side of right and justice. We have reported in the press and elsewhere about Ms Sooba flouting the authority of council; refusing to carry out decisions of the council; spending council’s money at will; waiving interests on property rates for certain businesses; arbitrarily cutting council’s allowances without any sensible or scientific methodology; purchasing luxurious items including a sofa; installing electrical equipment on the already overburdened system at City Hall.
We have said that Ms Sooba has refused to expend money on planned capital works in the city.
For the two years she has been squatting in the office of Town Clerk we have not repaired one mile of road; carried out no substantial drainage works; and have done no repairs to our municipal markets. In addition, all of the council’s buildings, including City Hall, are in a dilapidated state without any information or plan for repairs forthcoming, while officers are forced to manage offices without basic Sthings, and council-administration relations have been deteriorating rapidly.
Our incessant complaints to Minister Whittaker have fallen on deaf ears. In fact, his silence and unwillingness to stand on the side of good governance has bolstered her inclination to be unkind in her words, untidy and rabid in her language and aggressive in her efforts to cause a collapse in all the systems at council. Ms Sooba has been doing whatsoever she pleases completely oblivious to the fact that the Mayor and City Council is her employer, not the Minister as she supposes. We are in a very sorry state at the Georgetown municipality.
We believe that the Minister’s imposition of Ms Sooba on this council is insulting to all Guyanese; we remain offended by it.
As for her slanderous and defamatory remarks against the Mayor, he has initiated legal proceedings against her in the courts. We have had enough. We cannot go on in this disorderly and lawless manner. Citizens deserve better.
Yours faithfully,
Patricia Chase-Green
Deputy Mayor of Georgetown
