By Jeff Trotman
Region Ten Chairman Sharma Solomon was given an embarrassing cold shoulder by the Region’s Executive Officer (REO) Yollande Hilliman, who refused to prepare the relevant documents for the 7th Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region Ten to hold its final statutory meeting on February 5.
A peeved Solomon told Stabroek News on Thursday midday that following a special caucus of the councillors, which was held on Wednesday, January 28, he asked the REO to put the necessary things in place for the statutory meeting, which is usually held on the first Thursday in every month.
Solomon said the REO, who usually functions as the Clerk of Council at RDC statutory meetings, told him that since President Donald Ramotar had announced the date for the next general elections, council would not be in session and only the Chairman and Vice Chairman will continue to be functioning.
“Her being an administrative officer does not make what she said official,” Solomon said. “I made several attempts from my office to contact the Minister of Local Government and his permanent secretary. To date, I have not been able to make contact with them. I’ve left several messages with the minister’s secretary and those messages have not been responded to,” he noted.
He said he had called a special meeting of Region’s councilors on January 28, following the President’s announcement of an election date. He said that meeting was intended to prepare the councillors for their final statutory meeting. At that meeting, the councillors reviewed the performance of the 7th Regional Democratic Council–matters accomplished and achieved as well as areas that need improvement. He said recommendations were also made for the way forward on a number of outstanding matters.
Noting that there have been RDC statutory meetings in other regions, Solomon said the absence of this meeting would have taken away many things from the people of Region Ten, including updates relating to infrastructural works on several schools within the region as well as information on how finances for the region are being spent.
“Because of the absence of this meeting, the teachers and those several hundred students of Mackenzie High School are unaware as to who or what is actually responsible and when the situation will be properly remedied because there is no oversight by a council to get information on this matter,” he explained.
“Those are questions for which this region is not going to get answers because the statutory [meeting] of the council was prevented by the REO based on the administration’s unwillingness to prepare for a statutory. No preparation was put in place; no minutes of the last statutory were distributed and also no information was passed on for councillors to attend statutory. That is the sort of contempt and, more so, again, I bring the Minister back into this,” Solomon said, referring to Junior Finance Minister Juan Edghill, who has been appearing on the Linden-based Television Channel 13.
“The Minister is saying that he made contact with the REO to remedy the snake infestation at the Watooka Day School–not the council. So, in between our council not being able to function because of what was done by the administration, it is the minister, who is contacting the REO to get things done. So, that is what the residents of this region will have to understand,” he added.
