Government is concerned about the reports emerging from the ongoing Com-mission of Inquiry (CoI) into the management of City Hall but will await its completion and the submission of its recommendations before taking any action.
“We are concerned [about] what we see coming out and reported in the newspapers of that CoI but certainly we will have to [wait for] the completion of it; wait on it and the recommendations of the commission, before we can take action,” Minister of State Joseph Harmon said yesterday.
Following a “plethora” of complaints against City Hall by residents and members of the business community, including vendors, the Local Government Commission (LGC) last month initiated the inquiry.
“Several of the complaints that have occasioned this step include a reported failure of the City Council to remit workers’ National Insurance Scheme contributions, failure to remit to the Credit Union contributions deducted from workers’ salaries and issues surrounding the award of contracts in keeping with financial regulations, transparency and accountability among others,” the LGC had said in a statement.
Town Clerk Royston King has been sent on leave to facilitate that inquiry, which, since it began has seen some eyebrow-raising allegations levelled against him and City Hall.
Allegations raised in testimony received so far range from the mismanagement of the city’s funds to deliberate frustration in the processing of permits, bribery, and victimisation.
The testimonies mirror complaints received over the years about the general management of City Hall. Almost daily, City Hall continues to endure public bashing for the management of not only the city’s affairs and its constant cries of lack of funds when persons believe it squanders the sums it receives, but also of its own building which has been left to fall into a dilapidated state.
Councillors representing the coalition government currently have control of the council.
In the run-up to the upcoming local government elections, President David Granger has been holding community meetings across the country and has been highlighting the importance of voters ensuring that those who they elect into office are held accountable for their performance.
While the President has not yet held a community meeting in the city, Harmon said that government is not “oblivious” to what is happening at City Hall.
“We are not deaf to what is taking place. I have indicated…that while local democracy [was] brought into place, the management of the city and the strategic nature of where the city is to the seat of government, the government cannot be oblivious to things taking place there,” he said.
“Yes, we are recognising the matters coming out of the CoI and the CoI is still a matter that is ongoing. While you may express concerns on what is coming out, it is the recommendations that come out of that CoI that the government will have to take action on,” he added.
Harmon pointed to the fact that the terms of reference for CoI allows for the Commission to make preliminary recommendations if it finds “it is in the public interest” that those be instituted even as its works continue.
However, he said, government has had “no such recommendations, so we may have to await the findings of Justice Kennard.”
According to the Terms of Reference set out by the LGC, retired Chancellor Cecil Kennard is mandated to “Investigate the administration and operations of the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown; [investigate] the reason for and the process by which a motion of no confidence on the Town Clerk was dealt with by the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown; and generally to investigate any matter that may be brought to the attention of the Commissioner during the Inquiry that would adversely affect the administration and operation of the Municipality of Georgetown.”
