The Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) has been unable to meet for the past nine months; a situation that has severely impacted the equitable distribution of services to the residents of that region.
The RDC met on Thursday and once again the meeting was disrupted.
The last successful RDC meeting was in February of this year. In March, the Regional Executive Officer (REO), Ovid Morrison walked out after an unsuccessful attempt to silence a media house which has been in the forefront in reporting what was happenings at that RDC.
Region Five Chairman Vickchand Ramphal, who held a press conference after the disrupted meeting, said the REO was disrespectful during the meeting and as such, he was forced to bring the meeting to a premature end.
He explained that Morrison repeatedly stood up to speak and refused to take his
Region Five Chairman Vickchand Ramphal3
seat when instructed to do so.
“He can only speak when the Chairman gives him permission to do so and he should not be speaking on a point of order like a Councillor. What was happening today was that the Clerk was standing up like a Councillor at any point of the meeting to either make a contribution or to contradict what the Chairman or another Councillor had said. At Thursday’s meeting, on several occasions, I told the Clerk to take his seat and to get the permission from the Chairman before he can make a point or to advise Council on a particular matter,” Ramphal said.
It was in the month of March that Morrison who is the Clerk of the Council, showed his disrespect for the Council and walked out of the meeting.
However, the Chairman argued that the March meeting was adjourned and as such, the minutes for the February meeting could not have been looked at.
When the Councillors met for the April meeting, one side of the floor claimed that they were going to look at the minutes of the March meeting since the February minutes were already dealt with, while the other side argued that there was no meeting in February and as such the minutes could not have been dealt with.
Since then, none of the RDC meetings that were held bore any fruit since the meetings were either disrupted or the Chairman was forced to adjourn same.
Hence, Councillors met and cannot discuss anything since the minutes in one of the first items on the agenda and they are at loggerheads as to which month minutes they should by looking at.
