Controversial Town Clerk Carol Sooba was yesterday dismissed by the Minister of Communities after a tumultuous three-year tenure that saw her in almost weekly confrontations with the city council and its mayor.
Sooba was surprisingly installed as acting Town Clerk in July, 2012 by then PPP/C Ministry of Local Government and she defied several motions of no-confidence moved against her by the Mayor and City Council.
However, the writing was on the wall for her after the change in government following the May 11th general elections.
This week, the restyled Ministry of Communities acted. In a letter, dated July 1st, 2015, the Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan informed Sooba that her “appointment as Town Clerk (ag) of the Mayor and Council of the Georgetown is hereby revoked.”
The revocation, which dismisses Sooba from July 7th, 2015 has been effected under Section 116(1) and Section 326(4) of Chapter 28:01 of the Municipal and Districts Councils Act of 1977.
Under section 326(4), the Minister is empowered to exercise the powers conferred on the Local Government Service Commission under Section 116(1). These powers include the appointment and disciplinary control of local government officers, such as the Town Clerk.
Speaking with Stabroek News last evening, Bulkan said that it was under these sections that Sooba was appointed by former Minister of Local Govern-ment Ganga Persaud and it is under this Act she has been removed by him in his capacity as Minister of Communities. The commission, he says, was never composed and thus never made operational. The APNU+AFC coalition has campaigned for the ending of ministerial powers over the hiring and firing of local government officials.
Mayor Hamilton Green, with whom Sooba had many vociferous confrontations, expressed his elation yesterday that the council had finally been relieved of “this millstone.”
“Her whole employment was grounded in deception. When she claimed she had qualifications for legal officer [her first appointment at City Hall], she did not have the basic qualifications for that post. Further during her entire time at City Hall Sooba never presented any qualifications even when she applied for the post of Town Clerk,” he told Stabroek News.
Sooba had told this newspaper in August, 2012, that she had 22 years of legal experience working at the Deeds Registry and as a Clerk at the Magistrate’s Court. At the time, she said that she was about to complete a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree programme. “I am a marketable person,” Sooba had stated then, adding that she was also a Justice of the Peace (JP) and a Commissioner to Oaths and Affidavits. “I have a wealth of experience… I have an unblemished record…,” she added.
Green added yesterday that though Sooba was not invited to interview for the post of Town Clerk because she did not have the qualifications, she was imposed on the council by the then Minister.
In April 2014, Sooba’s appointment as Town Clerk was quashed by Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang, who found that her appointment was “legally defective” since he said that former Local Govern-ment Minister Persaud did not have the lawful authority to appoint anyone.
Justice Chang said the Persaud’s decision to appoint Sooba as the Town Clerk was “ultra vires” since that responsibility was vested in the Local Government Service Commission, although it has never been set up.
“…It is the finding of the court that the Minister acted ultra vires the provisions of the Municipal and District Councils Act, Chapter 28:01, and his decision to appoint Carol Sooba as Town Clerk must be quashed,” Chang said at the High Court yesterday.
However, he added that his decision did not prevent Sooba from continuing to perform the functions of Town Clerk as the “de facto” Town Clerk. It needed a direct challenge by quo warranto to the authority of Sooba to bring her de facto service to an end, Justice Chang said. Several legal matters then followed in the courts over her appointment.
During her tenure at City Hall, the relationship between Sooba and the mayor and councillors was fraught with conflict. The brassy Sooba managed to alienate councillors from all political parties when she unilaterally decided to cut their stipends based on their attendance at council meetings.
Sooba’s dismissal letter was preceded by a motion passed at the May 25th, 2015 statutory meeting of the council. The motion called for Sooba to proceed on 42 days’ vacation leave to “facilitate a forensic investigation into a number of alleged illegalities and improprieties. These involved monies from the council’s coffers.”
The investigation into her alleged improprieties, which was to have been concluded yesterday, is still to be finished. According to Green, the delay is because Sooba has refused to give a statement or to officially hand over several documents to the new acting Town Clerk. Deputy Town Clerk Sharon Harry has been acting as Town Clerk since Sooba’s removal.
“All attempts by the constabulary to get a statement from her have proved futile. She was even verbally abusive to rank who sought to seek same…. She hasn’t officially handed over anything even though we have written her instructing her to do so,” he noted.
Green also told Stabroek News that the matter of a new Town Clerk is “to be explored at the council’s statuary meeting on Monday”.
“We have several options. Mr. (Royston) King [current PRO] was appointed by the council sometime in the past; an appointment which the then minister interfered with, so we may go ahead with that appointment or we may advertise the post. Our inclination is to go ahead with Mr. King’s appointment; that I believe is the inclination of the majority of the council,” he added.
Sooba is the latest of a number of persons to have been dismissed or sent on leave by the new APNU+AFC government.
