Local Govt Commission abruptly cancels meeting

…was scheduled to meet with City Hall employees

The Local Government Commission (LGC) cancelled meetings slated for Wednesday, when City Hall employees were supposed to present themselves for questioning on the Commission of Inquiry’s findings.
Informed sources related to Guyana Times that the discussions were abruptly called off since some of the Commissions were unavailable for the proceedings.
“They called the meeting off and rescheduled it for Friday and it was said that the Commissioners would not be available because of the issue that they had during the last meeting,” a source told this newspaper. The issue referred to was the

Commissioner Carol Sooba

barring of Commissioner Carol Sooba from the meetings. At the last meeting, Sooba was barred from discussions on the CoI’s report findings. The source explained that the Commission received information that Sooba was planning to attend the meeting on Wednesday; and as such, thwarted any further talks on the matter.
Vice President of the Commission, Andrew Garnett was once President of the Guyana Local Government Officers Union, which also raised concerns as to whether the officers would be fairly judged for their respective misdemeanours.
“I don’t know what this has to do with the Local Government Commission. I think they’re trying to get the meeting out to deal with the City Council people. We have to have a position on how we will deal with this. It seems as though the Chairman and Andrew Garnett who is the President of the Guyana Local Government Officers Union, is trying to protect these people from the City Council,” the source related.
Sooba was asked to recuse herself from attending meetings where her benefits would be discussed, having been a former Town Clerk at City Hall. Consequently, she was told afterwards that she cannot attend any of the other meetings by the Commission upon the persistence of the Chairman Mortimer Mingo and Vice Chairman Andrew Garnett.
Meanwhile, commenting on the matter, former Attorney General Anil Nandlall said that the no one from the Commission can prevent a constitutionally elected

Chairman Mortimer Mingo

Commissioner from preforming respective duties.
“I reject such a notion because the Local Government Commission is simply engaged in considering the report and possibly, to recommend or implement these recommendations. The Commission is not making any findings. Those findings have already been made by the CoI. I cannot imagine how Sooba’s presence can influence our prejudice,” said Nandlall.
This was backed by Sooba’s fellow Commissioner, Clinton Collymore, who further indicated, “There are other reasons for this. One of the reasons is that she was at the municipality for a very long time and she has some institutional knowledge as to what is going on and they don’t want that exposed.”
Some of the officers were requested by the LGC to present their side of the story which was presented in the Inquiry’s final report, inked with 31 recommendations.
Disciplinary actions were instated for Town Clerk Royston King, Acting Town Clerk Sharon Harry Munroe, Internal Auditor Omadeily Newton, City Constable Andrew Foo, Human Resources Manager Paula Braithwaite, among others.