Petitions calling for the removal of Wikki/Calcuni toshao Ezard Fredericks were not in accordance with the relevant laws, according to Minister of Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai.
More than 80 residents petitioned for the removal of Fredericks as they alleged that multiple breaches of the Amerindian Act had been committed.
A petition was submitted earlier in the year while a second was sent on March 4, 2022. In the last petition, the group of residents requested Fredericks’ removal citing sections 25(1), and 27(1) of the Amerindian Act, among other things.
Section 25(1) of the Act states “A member of a Village Council shall not put himself in a position where his duties to the village shall conflict with his personal or other interests.”
Section 27(1) of the Amerindian Act says “A village general meeting may petition the Minister to carry out an investigation on the grounds that a toshao or a councillor has failed to carry out his duties or has contravened any provisions of this Act.”
“It was not a petition in keeping with the law. What happened was that the people who are critical of the toshao, who were not collaborating with him, they went around house to house to get signatures secretly on the issues they wanted to raise so that nullifies this petition. By law, a petition should be called at a general meeting [and] toshao may not have to be there if he doesn’t attend, but he is expected to be invited if people want to talk about his leadership and where he is in breach etc.
“So they held meetings between the people who have grievances and then they went house to house soliciting for the so-called signatures and many people did not really understand what they were signing on to. They were saying that toshao has committed a series of infractions…that toshao was not working in the best interest of people and that they want him removed,” Sukhai said.
On Wednesday, Sukhai told Sunday Stabroek that a governance team from the ministry, headed by her, visited the Berbice River community to conduct an investigation into the claims. She said when the team arrived it dealt with each issue at a meeting and found that what was being alleged were farfetched allegations of misconduct.
In their petition, the residents said Fredericks’ mismanagement of village affairs started shortly after his election as leader. They also contended that his very election was not conducted in accordance with Section 65(1) of the Amerindian Act, which speaks to election by secret ballot. They also submitted that the toshao is elderly and spends most of his time taking care of matters other than village affairs. Fredericks was also accused of making decisions without the involvement of the full council.
In response to the allegations, Sukhai explained that it was found that the toshao was the only person in the village that went up for election. She added that the entire council was “selected” since no other villager wanted to run. She did admit that the toshao was elderly but explained that he served in that post previously and had executed his functions effectively.
“Alright, so one of the infractions they spoke about was the toshao did not have time. He was old [and] he could not manage the community. When we examined the toshao’s situation, we found that he’s capable in terms of his knowledge [and] he might be a bit aged and he has a wife [who is] living with a disability for a long time. It is nothing new.
“So that’s one of the complaints in this so-called petition. Also, we worked out to say that everyone can have a disability in their family that doesn’t make them any less efficient and effective or unsuitable for holding leadership,” the minister informed.
Another issue that was raised by the petitioners was that toshao Fredericks sold cows belonging to village projects without permission, resulting in him having to refund the buyer.
The minister said that the issue was resolved even before the more recent petition was submitted.
“…When he was told that it was not an approval of the people – which, the law does not allow for that anyway; that council can make a decision to dispose of cattle to procure others to refill the space – he provided the finance right there and then. [It was not done] at our meeting but prior and that matter was they were accusing him of selling village assets with all without permission was also cleared,” she added.
The residents also raised the issue of inequitable distribution of forestry tags and permission to harvest logs within the village. They had informed the minister that the toshao’s son, who is also the village treasurer, is the one making the decisions and is also involved in logging.
Sukhai said her team was informed that there are 46 loggers in the community and they are all being treated fairly. She said that 1,000 logging tags were received by the community, in two tranches of 500, and they were equally distributed to the operators within the village.
“What happened is that they don’t have a communication system and [radio] sets in the area to call everybody and everybody live up and down river and far distances etc. However, he did not have a meeting to report it. So they were complaining that they didn’t know how it was distributed but all the loggers present there [at the meeting] were questioned – whether they received the tags – and they did receive the tags,” she said.
As it relates to the toshao’s son’s involvement in logging, the minister said that he has been hired by an investor to run the operation in the village and is not responsible for the distribution of the tags, which is a misconception of some of the villagers.
The minister said that team also found that there is a high level of “disunity” among members of the council and as a result, the villagers are often left uninformed or misinformed. She added that the team mandated that the council started to put measures in place to work collaboratively. That was done one month ago.
When the team revisited the community on Thursday, April 7, it found that very little progress was made. Sukhai also visited the team on Tuesday and she found the situation remained the same.
“So when I went back, I enquired from the secretary, who was prominently at the meeting and I said, ‘Are you now working with the toshao?’ And she said to me, ‘I am making effort to work with toshao but now that I’m making that effort, I am being attacked.’
“They are now new into leadership and they’re not fully aware of the processes and the law itself. So when toshao does something because he’s not getting the support, he has to still carry on with his duties. He can’t throw up his hands and [say] he is not able. He was elected legitimately. The treasurer was elected too,” she said.
The minister reiterated that the community needs to work together and that the ministry found no misconduct on the toshao’s part to warrant his removal.
