Govt. official calls for probe of Rose Hall IMC

Oct 11, 2010 News

ROSE HALL TOWN, CORENTYNE – A Government Official is calling for an investigation into the daily operations of the Rose Hall Interim Management Committee (IMC). The spokesperson noted that based on the statutory minutes for July 2010; there are breaches in the financial regulations.
“The accounting system is poor and has lots of breaches. The system is opened for lots of wrong doing. They are not preparing payment vouchers in duplicate or triplicate, just a single copy they do and this is kept by the Treasury Department. On each payment voucher, there must be two signatories but in many cases only one person signs these documents.”
It is alleged that in one case, $1,884,957 was mistakenly deposited by an official of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority on April 30 and June 1 this year to the Rose Hall IMC’s bank account.
“The money was intended for the New Amsterdam Town Council. This matter was never reported to the Council by the treasury department. When the Town Clerk (Bhoopnarine Tickapersaud) raised it with the Chairman of the IMC, he said it was not a big matter and nothing was done. The transaction was never reversed and it was never reflected in the Rose Hall IMC Treasurer’s financial statement.”
The official said that few a days after the Town Clerk raised the issue, the Chairman of the IMC Bhadenauth Somrah penned a letter to the Local Government Ministry seeking the termination of the Town Clerk’s service.
When the Town Clerk Bhoopnarine Tickapersaud was contacted he said that he had written to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government about the bank transaction and a copy was sent to the Minister in July.
Town Clerk Bhoopnarine Tickapersaud took up the position on May 9th this year. Prior to that, he held the post of overseer at Beterverwagting/Triumph Neighbourhood Democratic Council. He reportedly opted to return to his home town and applied for the job of the town clerk then resigned from his old position.
The official said that last month the IMC received the $4 million subvention from Government and projects are being awarded to hand-picked individuals in the township.
“The correct thing is for contractors to bid. It must go through the tender board but now it is not, he (IMC Chairman) is giving it to semi-skilled and skilled people without going through the tender board. That is not right.”
Although Chairman of the IMC Bhadenauth Somrah said he would not respond to any of the allegations, he added, “I don’t know about any of that. That information is not open to the public. The Council has not dealt with the work programme. We are waiting on the Regional Engineer’s estimate. The Rose Hall IMC is the most advanced council in this country. We are financially strong. We are making advancement in the society. I don’t want to get involved in this. I am not getting involved in this.”
In an invited comment, Chairman of Region Six Zulfikar Mustapha said he heard about several problems in the Rose Hall Interim Management Committee including those of financial irregularities but none was ever officially reported to him.
“If people come to me with the allegations all I can do is ask the Minister of Local Government to launch an investigation. So far no one came to me to report any of the problems. Persons should come forward and report them.”
According to Mr. Mustapha, the IMC is supervised directly by the Municipal Service Officers attached to the Ministry of Local Government and as such his Administration has no control over the body.

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Govt. official calls for probe of Rose Hall IMC

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