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Tempers flare at City Hall as Sooba confirm as Town Clerk
Tempers are flaring at City Hall over the controversial appointment of the “unqualified and unfit” Carol Sooba as Town Clerk.
Sooba, according to Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon has been confirmed officially as the city’s Town Clerk.
The announcement came during Luncheon’s weekly press briefing at Office of the President yesterday. “If you ask about the confirmation of her appointment I will have to say yes; I was personally advised about her appointment as well as other appointments to fill vacancies in the Council.”
Town Clerk Carol Sooba
When asked to rationalize Sooba’s appointment amidst continuous rejections by the City Council which claims her (Sooba) incompetence, Luncheon said that the claim is arguable but that his press briefing is not the suitable forum for such discourse.
City Hall said that it is not in receipt of a written confirmation of Sooba’s appointment. Riding on the word of Dr. Luncheon, the Council is adamant that the move to appoint an “unqualified” Sooba to such a pertinent position is an insult to academically qualified persons and those seeking higher education.
Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Greene who is also acting Mayor in the absence of Mayor Hamilton Green, said yesterday that Sooba’s appointment “comes as a great surprise to a member of the panel that sat to do interviews for the position of Town Clerk and Treasurer.”
“At our interview the requirements for the position of Town Clerk were a Degree in Law, Economics, Urban Planning, and Public Management amongst others.” Greene said there were four participants, two of whom were in line with the requirements.
Mr. Paul Clarke and the Council’s current Public Relations Officer Mr. Royston King were shortlisted, while Mr. Darren Khan and Sooba, “being the least qualified” did not fit the bill.
According to Chase-Greene, Clarke, being the most qualified of the lot, the interview panel recommended
Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Greene
that Clarke was the fittest for the post. She reiterated that Sooba was the least qualified of the applicants, and did not present any physical evidence of the qualifications she claimed to possess. In noting the Degrees and Masters that the other applicants presented, Chase-Greene said Sooba claimed to have “six subjects in College of Preceptors and an incomplete certificate in Managerial law from the University of Guyana and is currently involved in a program of the Law Degree from UG.”
When asked further questions about her qualification, Chase-Greene said Sooba demanded to know from the panel whether she was on trial or being interrogated. Sooba was cautioned by the panel Chase-Greene said, before she (Sooba) threatened to challenge them (panel) in a court of law if she is not appointed Town Clerk.
Chase-Greene charged that Sooba’s appointment is an attack on the democratic process that the administration has been piping about and an insult to persons seeking upward mobility via academic elevation. She added that it is also an insult to the members who chaired the interviews as they were chosen from five different entities by the Local Government Ministry. Chase-Greene argued that this is a matter for the President’s intervention.
Several Council members and City Hall workers expressed dissatisfaction at Sooba’s appointment with some questioning the wisdom of securing academic qualifications when these can easily be sidelined. It was questioned further the rationale behind Sooba’s recent appointment when last May, none of the seven persons vying for the Town Clerk position, including Sooba, were deemed unqualified.
The publication understands however that Sooba was appointed Town Clerk since Monday last but the information was now coming to the fore. It is understood, further, that Sooba’s appointment may have come over the direction of the Local Government Minister and petitioned by identified forces.
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