APNU/AFC councillors disrupt RDC meeting

Region Five RDC impasse

APNU/AFC Councillors in Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice) are reportedly maintaining their unwillingness to sit around the horseshoe table to discuss the region’s business with People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Councillors at monthly statutory meetings.
On Thursday, the Coalition again deprived Region Five residents of the services the RDC has to offer by disrupting the Council’s statutory meeting.
Convicted AFC councillor Abel Seetaram, who is out on bail pending an appeal of a wounding charge, was very prominent at Thursday’s meeting.
Under agenda item correction/omission, Regional Chairman Vickchand Ramphal said the Council must ratify the minutes of the February Statutory Meeting, since he had presided over that meeting.
The APNU/AFC Councillors, along with the Clerk, had, in March 2018, reconvened a meeting and prepared illegal minutes and wanted the Council to preside over those.
Regional Chairman Ramphal said because the Council could not reach an agreement, he was forced to adjourn the meeting.
In Region Five, the general infrastructure is collapsing. Drainage and irrigation canals and trenches are heavily clogged with weeds, and many farmers have suffered losses due to the Council not making sound decisions for people of the region.
The Regional Chairman has since made a call for councillors of the coalition to work in the best interest of the people of that region.
In 2016 and 2017 the Coalition councillors had refused to sit in most of the meetings.
Between January and July 2016, the Coalition councillors refused to sit in the meetings, demanding an apology from the Chairman for not attending a function in the Region at which President Granger was the guest of honour. In was not until the President had addressed the issue in August of that year by stating that he did not want an apology that the Coalition counsellors returned to the table.
In May 2017, they walked out after Regional Executive Officer Ovid Morrison demanded from the Chairman an apology, saying that his credibility was at stake when Ramphal called for an investigation into allegations that two NDC officials had used an NDIA machine to carry out personal work.
Morrison said he had seen the machine being used, and is of the opinion that since he stated that he saw the machine carrying out personal work, no investigation is needed; and to call for an investigation is an insult to his integrity. (Andrew Carmichael)