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M&CC submits request for three top officers to be sent on leave

Jun 20, 2012 News

 

The Mayor and City yesterday held a meeting to discuss the “next steps” to its latest allegations of fraud. The confab resulted in the decision for three top officials to be sent on vacation leave to facilitate a thorough internal investigation.
The officers to be sent on vacation leave are Town Clerk Yonette Pluck, Treasurer Andrew Meredith and City Engineer Gregory Erskine.
It has been a week since the findings of an investigation headed by Keith Burrowes – of the Implementation Committee – has been publicly disclosed. The “shocking discoveries” included the existence of “dummy companies”, extremely high overtime claims, high debts, fuel fraud, abuse of company resources for personal use and unauthorized loans. The report stemmed from allegations made against the Town Clerk and Treasurer.
Kaieteur News has learnt that if the in-house investigation confirms the findings of Gaskin’s investigation, the three aforementioned officers are most likely to be sacked.
Mayor Hamilton Green expressed concern that a copy of the report was not given to him. The Chief Citizen lamented that he only saw an unsigned copy of the report through the Town Clerk.
Further, Green disclosed that he has, over time, noticed a disturbing trend as it relates to meetings between the Ministry of Local Government and the Council. The Mayor said that only the Town Clerk and Treasurer are usually invited to meetings with the Ministry.
“They leave me completely out. That’s a form of micro-management.”
Green explained that he wrote the President upon this issue stating that it is impropriety and a breach of protocol. He said that protocol demands for the Minister to relate to the Mayor and the Permanent Secretary to the Town Clerk.
The Mayor explained that on numerous occasions, he wrote the Auditor General expressing concerns of perceived corruption within the Council.
Green further recounted an instance over a year ago where he asked the previous Minister of Local Government to initiate an investigation into some alleged misconduct in the treasury department. He said that in the middle of the investigation, it was halted without any explanation.
“I was given no explanation as to why the investigation stopped.”
He also cited an occasion where the misconduct of two koker attendants caused the city to flood.
“We sacked them and the Minister requested that they were reinstated… so we try not to take matters into our own hands because of instances like these,” said the Mayor.
Green revealed that the Ministry will receive the letter today and the Council anxiously awaits its decision so that the in-house investigation can be carried out.
The Mayor and City Council has been under investigation several times before. The latest investigation was carried out by Ramon Gaskin under the management of Keith Burrowes.
It has been revealed that the council owes over $1B to various entities and took a $40.999M loan without the permission of the Local Government Ministry.
Kaieteur News has learnt that if the findings of the report are to be confirmed the issue “will become a police matter.”

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