Absences delay emergency meeting on city officials allegedly linked to irregularities

An emergency meeting of members of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) on the fate of three senior officers allegedly linked to irregularities at City Hall was scuttled yesterday by the lack of a quorum.

Councillors later accused Town Clerk Yonette Pluck-Cort, one of the officers who were the subject of the meeting, of being responsible for miscommunication that resulted in the failure to attend by some of them.

“I am totally disappointed at what is taking place here today, because I received no notification for this meeting and I am certain that many of the other councillors did not receive any notification either,” Councillor Ranwell Jordan said.

The emergency statutory meeting was initially scheduled for Thursday to discuss whether or not the officers would be sent on annual leave to facilitate an in-house investigation in light of alleged corruption within the council’s operations.

This meeting had to be adjourned due to officers’ failure to attend. However, yesterday, some of the officers were present while councillors had not appeared.

“I find it strange that a number of officers are here but when they were supposed to be here yesterday (Thursday) they weren’t here,” Jordan added.

He further stated that committee meetings have not been taking place because Pluck-Cort has not been calling the sessions, in keeping with members’ agenda. This, he said, has resulted in business being frustrated. “And this is yet another frustration,” he noted.

Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green added that frustration is growing among all councillors and she promised that the meeting would be called on Monday.

“We’re all disappointed. If it is deliberate, I do not know… I will not cast blame on anyone,” she said. She explained that the Town Clerk was expected to call the meeting on request of Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green, but she had failed to do so. As a result, the councillors who managed to attend yesterday were without an agenda.

In an invited interview after the meeting was adjourned, Chase-Green told Stabroek News that the Town Clerk has not been attending any statutory meetings since the release of the Ramon Gaskin report. “The Town Clerk is required to give an explanation but she is also required to send a representative if she is not able to come and that is what she has been doing all the time,” she pointed out, adding that notwithstanding this situation, Pluck-Cort has been appearing at work and is on duty as usual. “She is in her office. I spoke to her before I came, because I was trying to find out what is on the agenda for this meeting. I would not be able to say why she is not coming,” she added.

Stabroek News tried to contact Pluck-Cort but was unsuccessful.

Chase-Green further stated that only the City Treasurer Andrew Meredith has been attending meetings since the Gaskin report. “I have observed that since the Gaskin report has come out and there are allegations made against the three officers, the only officer that has been coming to meetings is the treasurer who was present here this morning (yesterday),” the Deputy Mayor pointed out.

The report, produced as part of the work of a committee set up to assess progress by the city in implementing key reforms that came out of the Keith Burrowes Inquiry into the City Hall’s operations, found that 50% of the council’s staff were ‘phantoms,’ that it has been conducting business with front and collusion between city staff and persons awarded contracts for city works.

Green subsequently wrote Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud requested that Pluck-Cort, Meredith and City Engineer Gregory Erskine be sent on leave to facilitate an in-house investigation, but there has been no response.

Junior Minister Norman Whittaker has, however, indicated that based on the findings of the Gaskin probe, police have been called in to do a criminal investigation.