Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine yesterday defended the recently passed motion to terminate City Engineer Colvern Venture, saying that it was due to the poor management of his department and not to any personal grouses.
At a press conference held yesterday at the Mayor’s Complex at City Hall, Narine detailed numerous complaints to Venture on a range of issues dating back to 2019 and he maintained that no action was taken and no response was received from the officer.
He mentioned that a letter, dated November 3, 2021, was sent by the Local Government Commission (LGC) to the Town Clerk Candace Nelson in order to invite Venture to attend a meeting the following week to discuss complaints against him, including his failure to respond to correspondences. “…to my knowledge, this meeting never happened,” he said.
“And I could go on and on with these issues,” he said, before dismissing Venture’s claim that his department did not have access to resources as “a lame excuse.”
“How long more are we going to tolerate this kind of incompetence at the city?” he further questioned, while noting that he and councillors are being blamed for the lack of action.
Narine showed reporters a compilation of correspondence from 2019 to date where Venture did not respond to him and failed to carry out his responsibilities.
He mentioned letters from Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha and Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill that were also forwarded to Venture for action but he said the matters were still to be addressed by the City Engineer.
Venture has stated that resources have not been made available by the Mayor and City Council’s Finance Department but Narine questioned whether that was also to blame for failure to process building plans. Narine said on many occasions persons approached him to enquire about their plans. “You have people coming to me to get their plan. I have to write to Mr. Venture through the channel, asking him to deal with these matters,” he noted before adding that to date he still hasn’t received a response from Venture on those matters.
Furthermore, he said the recent bylaws on littering that were approved by the councillors were sent to Venture for his recommendations but he did not respond.
Councillor Clayton Hinds, who seconded the motion for Venture’s termination, was also at the press conference and he lamented the poor management of the City Engineer’s Department.
Hinds said that due to the weakness of the City Engineer’s Department, a decision was made a while ago to bring onboard engineer Charles Ceres but due to the lack of cooperation within the department, Ceres left. “One of the areas that was identified with a lot of weaknesses was the Engineer’s Department. As result of this identification, the committee of which I am a part of, that is the City Works Committee, we were able to organise and bring onboard, with [the] intention of helping the department to up its game, we were able to bring onboard Mr. Charles Ceres to assist the department. But because of the lacklustre approach by the City Engineer’s Department in terms of its responsibility….he left,” Hinds said.
According to both the mayor and councillor, they have nothing against Venture but the city can no longer tolerate his poor management.
The decision to terminate Venture lies with the Local Government Commission and until then he will continue to serve as the City Engineer.
