Concerns have been raised about a $500,000 fuel bill that has been incurred by Mayor of Linden, Carwyn Holland and his Deputy, Waneka Arrindell.
At a recent meeting of the town council’s finance committee, Town Clerk Jenella Bowen expressed concerns over the fuel bill.
Bowen has been at loggerheads with the Mayor and most of the council and in the past few months two no-confidence motions have been passed against her. The last was passed last Wednesday and the council is awaiting a response from the Ministry of Communities as it relates to the request to send her on administrative leave with immediate effect.
“The previous council’s fuel bill would have amounted to $48,000 for the IMC chairman, if considered in the said period,” Bowen stated at the meeting.
For her part, Deputy Mayor Arrindell questioned why the Town Clerk only targeted the travelling expenses of her and the mayor and did not investigate all other expenditures incurred during the past three months since they have been in office.
“Let me be the first to say that I have a problem with the said document that was distributed publicly and I also have no confidence in working with the Town Clerk any longer,” Arrindell stated.
Meanwhile, Councillor Derron John accused both Bowen and Councillor Lennox Gasper of leaking the information on the fuel bill to the public.
He told the meeting that it was unethical that the information was out in the streets. “And I can call his name, very clearly—Councillor Gasper—and I want it to be mentioned that I said it,” Councillor John, asserted.
“The mayor and his deputy are doing the work of the council, and such has never happened before where the Town Clerk requested information on travelling expenses for the chairman since I have known myself as a Councillor,” he added
Councillor Gasper, in response, demanded proof from his colleague that he was responsible for the leak and threatened to charge him with defamation of character if he fails to produce the said proof.
“Be that as it may, there is nothing wrong with transparency and accountability since it was the people’s business, and therefore every dollar of the finance record should be published for every quarter,” Gasper stated.
