City Hall employees proceeding on leave without LGC approval

Employees attached to the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) have been proceeding on leave without any approval from the Local Government Commission – the body that has constitutional power to grant such.
This was revealed by acting Town Clerk Sherry Jerrick on Monday during a statutory meeting. According to her records, the Commission has not granted any leave since the new Commissioners were appointed in April of this year.
But employees have acted on their own accord by proceeding on leave on the date for which they applied despite non-approval.
“The Local Government Commission has not approved anybody’s leave. When you submitted the roster to them, to date they have not sent a single response to anybody’s leave. Persons would have been proceeding on leave based on what they applied for and what was indicated on the roster…From since they commenced in April to now, I have not seen any letter showing that anybody’s leave was approved,” Jerrick outlined.
According to the Local Government Commission Act, “The Commission shall deal with all matters relating to staffing of local organs and in particular, shall – (b) approve of renumeration, superannuation, training, leave and promotion of staff.”
This matter was particularly raised after the internal auditor was slammed for failing to start the process of getting the Council’s assets register in order. The Town Clerk pointed out there has been a “back and forth” situation in a bid to have these records in order, and to compound the issue, the said auditor is on leave.
“I wrote the internal auditor to submit the marking, whatever system for marking that is in place and the response is there is none…That the list that she had, she doesn’t have a computer system to print it off…I wrote to request something, a clarification, and her response is very uncooperative. When I brought it up to the committee, the committee sent it back and said I should write her.”
Responding to this revelation, Mayor Ubraj Narine asserted that no one will be sheltered in the event that they are found in dereliction of their duties.
The Town Clerk has since indicated that she has developed a system in which the assets can be tallied, and it will be forwarded to the relevant officers.
“I have come up with my own numbering system and that I would have forwarded to be used. That is what I will recommend that the audit unit use,” Jerrick told the Council. (G12)