Ms. Sooba does not have the authority to expend Council’s money without permission

Jun 15, 2014 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Over the past few weeks, there has been much public discussion and debate, in governmental agencies, the media and in many public places about whether Ms. Carol Rayan Sooba had the authority to use five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000.00) without the permission of the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown. Indeed, we, at City Hall, have received numerous calls from concerned citizens about this unprecedented occurrence.
For brevity, earlier this year, Ms. Carol Sooba collected five hundred thousand dollars (500,000) of Council’s funds in a matter that is not only essentially personal but for which there was no authority. As a result, Deputy Mayor, Mrs. Patricia Chase Green, who was performing duties of Mayor, at that time, wrote the Auditor General and requested an investigation into the issue. Ever since that time, there have been all sorts of stories in the media about the authority of the council.
Having regard to our statutory responsibility to stakeholders and the general public, we feel obliged to clarify different aspects of what has become a very troubling trend at the Mayor and City Council- the continuous and continual disrespect for the authority of the duly elected Mayor and City Councillors, the people’s representatives. Further, it did not escape the attention of the council that, this disrespect is being encouraged with evident subtlety, by certain external forces that have special interests in the work of the council. This will be discussed at length in another letter. However, in this letter, our focus is on the matter at hand- the use of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000)without the requisite permission or authority of the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown.
We begin with this clear and unambiguous statement: Ms. Sooba does not have the authority to expend council’s money without its formal knowledge and permission. This is not personal it is the law. We now qualify this statement by making three points:
First, the Georgetown City Council is a Local Government Authority. It is a government with the requisite authority to govern it local area. It governs its affairs, internal and in the wider community, through a network of committees, organizational policies and protocols and a system of laws, by- laws, rules and regulations. These are stipulated in the Municipal and District Councils Act, Chapter 28:01 and other Ordinances such as the Public Health Ordinance, chapter 145.
Every local government officer employed by the Mayor and City Council has a duty to, recognize, respect, regard andcomply with those organizational arrangements, and in the case of the constabulary and other regulatory agencies of the council to enforce strict compliance to those laws. There can be no compromise otherwise the organizational structures will fail, the authority of the council will be undermined, and the council will be unable to discharge its responsibility to the citizens of Georgetown.
In so far as the financial management of the council is concerned, there are clear and specific laws, in the Municipal and District Councils Act, Chapter 28:01, which guide the city council. Certain amendments were made to the Act up to 1997. At Part V, the Act specifically addresses the area of Finance: Accounts, Receipts and Expenditure.
In the area of contracts, which we are particularly concerned about in the case of Ms. Sooba, the Act states the following:-
Section 149, “ All payments on account of a council shall be made by the treasurer in pursuance of an order signed by two councillors who are members of the Finance Committee and who areauthorised by the  Finance Committee in that behalf; and all cheques for payment of moneys shall be signed by the treasurer and countersigned by the clerk or such other local government officer as may be authorized by the council on that behalf or any member of the Finance Committee: Provided that the following payments may be made out of general rate fund without an order, that is to say:
(a)    payments made in pursuance of section 22 ; (b) payments of allowances to councillors; (c) payments of emoluments and allowances to any local government officer in the service of the council (other than daily or weekly paid employees); (d) payments not exceeding two thousand dollars in relation to services provided for in the estimates.”
It is clear, that the sum that can be paid for services provided to the councilwithout the express permission of the council is two thousand dollars ($2000).All other payments particularly as they relate to contracts for goods and services must follow the tender procedure as stipulated by the Municipal and Councils Act, Chapter 28:01, at Part VII.
However, the Act permits Variation of the tender procedure in cases of emergency. At section 232 it states:
“In cases of emergency, or where the delay from inviting tenders in the manner provided in this Part would result in loss to the council, the council may authorise the making of contracts or purchases to the value of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars or more without publication of the notice required by section 229(1), or the invitations to tender mentioned in section230 (6):
Provided that in all such cases the council shall specify the method of inviting tenders and the period within which tenders shall be submitted.”
It should be noted that in all cases the law refers to the COUNCIL and not the Clerk or any other local government officer; the authority is the Council.Ms. Sooba like every other officer employed by the Mayor and City Council is an employee of the council and could not act by herself. If she does, as she has been doing, then she is clearly operating outside the context of the council and such action isillegal and could be challenged.
The law permits the Council to spend two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000)only in cases of emergencies.An emergency is a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or environment. Even in such cases, the council must show the loss that the city would have incurred had it not expended that money without following the tender procedure.
If the elective council, which is the policy- makers and the people’s representatives with full powers of the Municipal and District Councils Act, Chapter 28:01, are only allowed to spend two hundred and fifty thousand dollars even in cases of emergencies then by what authority, quo jure, did Ms. Sooba took five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000.00), double the amount that is permitted by the Act, out of the City’s Treasury, without the permission of the council to pay for legal service.Further, it should be noted that Ms. Sooba expended, without the fiat of the council, more than the law permits the entire Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown to spend during periods of emergencies.
Second, this kind of liberty facilitates poor financial accountability because the elective council is unable to know, to monitor and to manage the City’s Treasury. As a consequence, the council is unable to properly account to citizens for rates and other revenues at City Hall.
Also, the Mayor and Councillors are unable to respond to the felt needs of citizens  because they do not know, they cannot monitor and therefore cannot properly direct spending in areas that would improve the wellbeing and welfare of citizens in local communities in Georgetown. However, Ms. Sooba an employee of the council, whose substantive position on the organizational structure, at City Hall, is not even at the level of a middle manager, is exercising authority that transcends that of the elective council to expend money even in areas where the council has objected- a very sad state of affairs indeed. This leads to a complex and particular challenge of democratic deficit in the local governance of the City of Georgetown.
As it now stands, control over the decision- making process, particularly in the area of finance and the provision of vital municipal services and facilities, has been steadily wrenched out of the hands of the duly elected council of Georgetown. As a result, the elective council is unable to represent citizens; it is failing in its raison d’etre.This deficit is facilitating a dangerous erosion of order in the internal management structure of the council and the city- a situation that will benefit no one.
One final point, Ms. Carol Sooba disregarded the laws stipulated in chapter 28:01 and the financial management structure and at the Mayor and City Council. No corporation would tolerate or accept such an anomaly let alone a municipality that has statutory responsibility to deliver services to citizens and to account for its revenue and expenditure. In the circumstances, the council will have to take appropriate action to correct this very terribly frightening situation and to push ahead with the business of managing the city of Georgetown.
Royston King
Mayor and Councillors- City of Georgetown

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