Minister of Local Government Kellawan Lall yesterday blamed personal squabbles for the poor functioning of the Linden Town Council, after he helped broker an agreement between its factions for the continued management of the town.
Lall led a team to Linden yesterday to address issues affecting the Linden Town Council, in the wake of a divide between the Interim Management Committee (IMC) and the council’s administration, in the person of the Town Clerk Patrick Inniss. A closed-door meeting was held with Town Council officials and leader of the PNCR Robert Corbin.
The functioning of the Linden Town Council was the subject of discussions between Corbin and President Bharrat Jagdeo on Tuesday, in a meeting at the Office of the President. Corbin, who had requested the meet, said it was intended to resolve the continued interference in the management of the council by the Ministry of Local Government, which he blamed for creating “almost a state of anarchy.”
According to Corbin, the IMC has been unable to function efficiently and the management and control of the staff appears to have devolved to the Minister and the Ministry. As a result of his meeting with President Jagdeo, it was agreed that a joint approach by Lall and Corbin would be made to have all outstanding issues resolved.
After the meeting, both Lall and Corbin said that there is much more to be done but a way forward had been agreed upon. They added that the council is expected to work with the objective of meeting the needs of the people it serves.
Lall told Stabroek News yesterday that he felt that his intervention was not necessary since the issues should have been resolved with the intervention of Regional Chairman Mortimer Mingo. According to him, the issues were personal and not political and officers needed to have their roles clearly defined and followed. “Some of the issues here are nothing less than some of the issues that have been resolved by other councils on a daily basis throughout the country and there are more difficult circumstances,” he said. He, however, added, “I am very satisfied at this moment that we are making progress and very soon, when they would have completed this exercise, at the end of the day to see to it that this council provides a far better service to the community of Linden.”
Meanwhile, according to Corbin, there are other issues that are to be addressed, including the shortage of councilors to sit on the IMC. He stated that it has been an uphill task to get persons to agree to sit as councilors because of the public impasse that existed. “I know for sure I would be able to convince some persons now that we have these issues dealt with,” he explained.
Corbin said that they were successful in identifying the core of some of the issues that have affected the smooth functioning of the council and he hoped that the agreed upon approach would be honored and implemented. “We will have to see how things manifest themselves in the days ahead but I hope that this opportunity which we had today has helped us all as individuals to realize that our real role is to provide an efficient service to the people of Linden,” he said.
Another meeting is planned for a progress report and to deal with other issues of concern.
Before yesterday’s meeting, the IMC had urged a political intervention to resolve the differences with the council administration. It said that it could no longer function in the existing environment. “The Councilors have asked for a political solution to the issue as we have found that too much interference from the Ministry is responsible for the current situation. Councilors have stated that they cannot work in that environment until it is made clear that it is responsible for managing the Council and the Town Clerk responds in like manner,” IMC Chairman Orin Gordon said in a recent press statement.
The impasse between the IMC and the council’s administration escalated at the end of last year, when the Town Clerk was issued a letter of suspension for a period of three weeks. This resulted in workers downing tools and taking protest actions calling for the removal of the IMC Chairman, among their demands.
The strike lasted for more than a week until the intervention of the Labour Ministry. However, there was a further setback over salaries and the workers were back on the streets for another extended period. When they resumed duties, the agreed payment procedures became an issue of contention.
