Chairman of the Regional Democratic Council of Region Five, Vickchand Ramphal yesterday appealed to Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan and President David Granger to “intervene incisively” in bringing an end to the “disastrous” disruption of its statutory meetings.
Using the forum of the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) weekly press conference at Freedom House yesterday, the chairman noted that the APNU+AFC councillors want him to apologize for not attending President David Granger’s function to hand over a school bus in the region in January, even though he was not invited.
He called on the president and minister to assist in bringing an end to “this monstrous seven months long unacceptable situation…”
He also promised that he and his councillors “will continue to explore all legal and democratic channels available as we continue to challenge this outrage.”
The APNU+AFC councillors have dubbed Ramphal’s absence from the function as being disrespectful to the president and they have been disrupting statutory meetings ever since.
Thursday July 21, 2016 was the seventh such disruption that “lasted from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. continuously, preventing the statutory meeting from being held” and from conducting the region’s business.
The new Regional Executive Officer (REO) Ovid Morrison has called on the leaders to be more responsible.
The PPP/C Councillors have invited the media to witness the behaviour of the APNU+AFC councillors at the next statutory meeting scheduled to take place on August 18, 2016.
Their actions, he said, “have tremendously affected the work of the Council. The consequence has been disastrous on the region with the council being unable to deliver, with any efficiency, services to which the residents of Region 5 are entitled, including those who have voted for the very councillors whose conduct are causing this unsatisfactory state of affairs.”
He stated that the council has been “unable to excavate and clean important canals, drains and trenches that come under its control, [and] which have caused millions of dollars in losses due to floods.”
The region has also been unable to offer effective assistance to the affected residents and to properly monitor the two hospitals and several health care centres throughout the region, to ensure that they are properly staffed and equipped.
As a result, he said, there have been widespread shortages of personnel and basic drugs at these facilities and the council has been unable to execute its community road programmes, resulting in streets falling into disrepair.
Further, the council has been unable to address the educational needs in the region and school buildings are “falling apart.” In fact, he said, the children of Mortice Nursery School in Mahaicony have been without a school building for over two months.
Ramphal said too that the Region has been unable to oversee the awarding of contracts while “contracts continue to be awarded without any scrutiny by the council.”
Last week, Morrison and councillors from both sides were present at the meeting. However, when Ramphal attempted to start the meeting, APNU+AFC councillors started to sing hymns and on this occasion, folk songs.
The chairman had called the meeting to order and the PPP/C councilors stood to recite the national pledge. In attempting to stop the meeting from commencing, APNU+AFC councillors sat through the recitation of the pledge.
Asked what he felt was the way forward for the region, the chairman responded, that he sees it to be “unity and co-operation among all councillors in the RDC.”
He said he could not be at the January function because he was meeting with the farmers in the Mahaica and Mahaicony areas who were affected by the El Nino weather conditions.
He was also asked who would “break the ice and resolve the issue” and General Secretary of the PPP, Clement Rohee, retorted: “…Who started it? Those who start the fight, they have to end it.”
He added that the chairman was not compelled to be there because it was a “political function. There was a programme [which he showed to the media] and the chairman’s name was not on it to speak.”
He pointed out too that the bus that was handed over was painted in green and yellow, the colours of the APNU+AFC coalition.
He said “we have instructed all of our regional councillors, including the chairman that whenever there is a state function, they should attend and whenever there is a political function, they should not attend. These are elected representatives and Region Five is not an extension of the APNU+AFC…”
