Port Mourant residents picket NDC office

By Andrew Carmichael

Residents of Port Mourant on Wednesday morning staged a picketing exercise calling for the removal of the Overseer of the Johns/Port Mourant Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC).
The situation hit crisis proportions on Tuesday after the Overseer was suspended from her duties and refused to hand over the keys making it impossible for staff to enter the office or for residents to make payments.
The NDC held its statutory meeting for the month of April on Tuesday, and the

decision was taken to suspend her.
The NDC had previously suspended Boodmattie Ramnarine in 2017, but the Communities Ministry overturned the suspension. Back then, the Overseer was accused of assaulting staff members, collecting revenue and not issuing receipts, and asking vendors to lie about the issue.
A year ago, Magistrate Charlyn Artiga issued an arrest warrant for her. She was also placed before the courts for assaulting a reporter.
According to NDC Chairman Ishwar Narinesammy, the NDC’s staff is of the view that the Overseer is mentally unstable.
“At the conclusion of the statutory meeting, we had a set of statements from all the staff, including market staff, and also residents.”
He pointed out that two employees of the NDC were forced to resign after being pressured by the NDC Overseer.
“The recommendation taken at the statutory meeting was to have her suspended and go and seek some psychiatric treatment, because we think she is becoming insane,” the Chairman said, while pointing out that the Overseer’s allegedly unprofessional actions in the office and work environment did not start at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Her behaviour is abnormal and her unprofessional attitude is now becoming a regular occurrence. We have been receiving complaints from the staff about the Overseer’s unprofessional attitude.”
Guyana Times understands that a decision was taken by the NDC to have Ramnarine hand over some of the keys which she controls to the Assistant Overseer Deodat Thakoordeen some time back; however, this was never done. According to the Chairman, not only has Ramnarine refused to hand over the keys, but she has also not been carrying out some of her responsibilities in an efficient manner.
“Staff have been complaining that their wages and salaries are not being paid on time and upon checking, we found that the Overseer had not been completing her task in the preparation of pay sheets [to] get to the Region in a timely manner for them to be signed,” the NDC Chairman said from the picket line.