Dear Editor,
Ms Hinds, the young lady properly appointed to fill a vacancy in the Mayor’s office, has not yet been paid after working for nine months. The Minister of Local Government Norman Whittaker should recall that after doing all the things he requested, including obtaining more than one confirmation of the full Council including PPP councillors at the statutory meeting of March 9, 2015, he expressed disgust that Ms Carol Sooba, his installed unqualified Town Clerk, had not given approval for the payment to Ms Hinds. Ms Sooba then assured the meeting that Ms Hinds would be paid the following day, March 10, but she was not paid. Instead we experienced yet another subterfuge by Ms Sooba.
I brought this to the Minister’s attention, and he made a commitment that Ms Hinds would be paid during the course of Friday, March 20. Since he is an honourable man, I believed him. Alas, Ms Hinds was not paid and left the office in tears.
During the course of my conversation with the Minister, I pointed out that not once did he reprimand Ms Sooba for her many, many wrong acts, and for her disregard of the decisions of the M&CC Georgetown; he made no comment.
Clearly as we celebrate women how could the Minister, the President and the government allow this torture of a young woman who has done no wrong, except perhaps to be asked to work in the Mayor’s office?
If Ms Sooba had not been deducting sums from my tiny stipend and refusing to put in writing the reasons, I may have been in a position to offer some financial support. One patriot today suggested a fund to support Ms Hinds and for her to move to the courts to deal with this nonsense. It is apparent Minister Whittaker’s government has lost its reason.
I will not raise this matter with the Minister or anyone in the PPP establishment again, since such would be a waste of time.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
Mayor
