The Regional Democratic Council of Region Four on Tuesday passed a no-confidence motion against Regional Executive Officer (REO) Donald Gajraj following the recent flag-raising ceremony fiasco which resulted in Region Four Chairman Daniel Seeram making a formal report of an assault against Gajraj.
Stabroek News was told that the no-confidence motion was passed on Tuesday at the council’s statutory meeting. Seeram has reportedly dispatched letters to several ministers and agencies informing them.
A resolution of the council seen by Stabroek News stated that Gajraj who serves as the clerk of the council refused to implement multiple directives, motions, and decisions passed by the RDC. Efforts to contact the REO yesterday proved futile.
The resolution claimed that Gajraj defiantly refuses to arrange regional administrative committee meetings, to schedule meetings of the senior administrative officers of the council every Monday, and to submit requests for virements and programme changes to the Regional Finance Committee as directed by council.
“The Clerk of Council refuses to present detailed financial reports of Agency 74 in accordance with council directives. The Clerk of Council refuses to send the Bill of Quantities, Contract Copies, and Weekly Progress Reports to the Works Committee as directed by council. The Clerk of Council approves payments to contractors without Works Committee review,” the resolution stated.
Furthermore, according to the document, the Clerk of Council “spends the Chairman’s Budget (6211) contrary to the chairman’s and council’s request”, and is “regularly absent from official/statutory council meetings.”
As regards the Regional Flag Raising ceremony, in celebration of Guyana’s 53 Republic Anniversary, the resolution said that the RDC’s National and Other Events committee agreed and approved a cultural programme and submitted it to Gajraj for “his attention and execution.”
However, “the Clerk of Council arbitrarily and single-handedly changed the committee’s approved cultural programme without the knowledge or guidance of the committee” and “self-appointed himself as the sessional chair for the cultural programme unknowing to the committee.”
According to the resolution, on the day of the event Gajraj allegedly “physically assaulted” Seeram. Therefore, the RDC “condemns in the strongest of manner the reprehensible, dictatorial and disrespectful behaviour” of Gajraj and “has no confidence” in him as the Clerk of Council, the resolution said.
Audit
Meanwhile, Seeram’s letters includes one to Finance Secretary Sukrishnalall Pasha part of which reads: “I request of you to conduct an immediate impartial investigation into all that happened financially within the office of the Regional Executive Officer from January 2021 to February 2023.”
He requested that the investigation and audit be done urgently before the appointment of an REO. A similar letter was also dispatched to the Auditor General Deodat Sharma.
