Two months after taking up the post of Mayor of Georgetown, Pandit Ubraj Narine is continuing to butt heads with the city administration for not following up on official correspondence.
Narine and acting Town Clerk Sharon Harry-Munroe have clashed over the timely implementation of City Council decisions and the efficient operation of several city departments, including the Public Relations (PR) Department.
At yesterday’s statutory Council meeting, Narine presented a folder which he said was filled with correspondence sent to the Town Clerk’s office, all of which remain unanswered.
“Why we are being pushed around when we have the people business to do? You see this file here? Correspondence to Town Clerk I never get a reply on to today. Correspondence sent from January,” a frustrated Narine lamented.
He called on Harry-Munroe to update the Council on the administration’s progress in identifying locations around the city for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) hubs.
The Ministry of Public Telecommunications had in 2018 requested that council identify such spaces but to date this has not been done. On January 6th, a request was sent to Narine who forwarded it to Harry-Munroe.
“I sent it here. Asked many times to have it tabled [at statutory]. One time I was told it need to go to IT committee but when I ask after the meeting I was told it was not tabled there, then it was to go to City Works now it has to go to the Investment Committee. We need an answer to give these people,” he stressed.
Harry-Munroe, in turn, maintained that the issue is scheduled to be placed before the Investment Committee on Thursday but also offered the option of having the matter discussed at that very moment.
Narine declined and instead pointed out other unanswered correspondence.
“I requested vacation leave for all Heads of Department (HOD), including the assistant and acting Town Clerk. That is still to be submitted. I requested a meeting with HODs on March 4. No response. I want to meet with HODs every Monday at 9 am,” he stressed, before adding that while the Town Clerk keeps making verbal promises, he wants responses in writing.
“The same way I send it in writing, send it over back to me in writing. That’s the kind of accountability and transparency I want. You can’t come to me and tell me, ‘Yes, it will be done’ and there is a pile. A pile of papers in a file to discuss and I’m not getting answers on any. I don’t want to have to discuss this here. These are my problems. If I had correspondence and we reached regularly, these things don’t have to be raised at full council,” an incensed Narine said.
He also took issue with the consistent late delivery of statutory agendas, while claiming that he received this week’s agenda a mere 30 minutes before the meeting.
He was supported in this complaint by councilor Shonelle Smith-Daniels, who told the Council that though the agenda was delivered to her home on Saturday, she was unable to read it before the meeting since she worked on Sunday.
“I would like in future for it to be delivered in a timely manner,” she told the administration.
The PR Department, which has come in for criticism at every meeting of the new council so far, was once again cited for misinforming the public.
In a letter to the editor published in the March 6th edition of the Stabroek News, Public Relations Officer Debra Lewis wrote that “the Tender and Procurement and Audit Committees are all sub -committees of the Council’s Finance Committee.”
“The Tender and Procurement and Audit Committees support the work of the Finance Committee and they enable the work of the Finance Committee to be more diverse and will allow for the implementation of more internal control mechanisms,” she added.
This is, however, not true. As Stabroek News reported on February 13, the committees are new and separate from the Finance Committee.
Narine reminded Harry-Munroe that she had repeatedly told council that no department communicates with the public without first reporting to her and he questioned how this misinformation was able to make it to the public. “Madam Town Clerk, I need you to manage the PR Department,” he directed.
