Grove/Haslington NDC plans to seek legal advice on embattled chairman
-citizens make numerous complaints at first meeting for year
By Miranda La Rose
Stabroek News
March 27, 2004
Acting Chairman of the Haslington/Grove NDC Bertie De Weaver (left) and officers of the NDC listen to a point being made by Superintendent of Works Winslow Cully at the statutory meeting.
(This is the 15th in a series on local government) The twelvemember Grove/ Haslington Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) has moved a motion to seek legal and other advice to resolve a number of problems, including alleged irregular practices by its chairman.
Shaken by a number of allegations against Chairman Godfrey Henry and accusations that councillors failed to execute their duties effectively, a depleted council was forced to fill some seats left vacant on the NDC.
Among the main duties of the council was the allocation of leased lands to residents, but this has created a number of problems for the NDC and numerous complaints were made on this and other matters by citizens on Monday.
Former councillors either resigned because the council was not a cohesive unit, or they migrated or just lost interest in the work of the council. One councillor who filled a vacancy for someone who had resigned out of disgust with the performance of the council said she, too, left because her studies at the University of Guyana clashed with the NDC's business.
Councillor Karen Elliott felt that councillors were weak in the face of the chairman, whom she described as displaying a domineering personality, and they generally left him unopposed to make decisions singlehandedly, whether good or bad. However, she does not blame the poor performance of the council on the chairman alone but on all who were involved and allowed the situation to deteriorate. In addition, she noted, the absence of local government elections over the past nine years has led to the worsening of the situation.
The Nabaclis/Golden Grove Community Centre building which houses the main office of the Haslington/Grove NDC. The building itself is in need of rehabilitation. The section at left, which houses a branch of the National Library has been closed to the publi
Just a week ago the council had been reduced to the minimum of seven. This included Henry against whom his colleagues passed a noconfidence vote as chairman of the NDC. On Monday last, five new councillors were installed bringing the number of councillors up to twelve.
Henry was not present at Monday's meeting, which was the first statutory meeting of the council for the year. He submitted an excuse for his absence. However the allegations against him were numerous.
On Monday, too, the finance and works committees, which functioned only briefly after the council came into being in 1994, were reestablished. These committees were set a number of immediate tasks. The works and finance committees were dissolved in 1996 following the resignation of two councillors who were said to be dissatisfied with the "autocratic" manner of the chairman.
The council is also meeting on streamlining the operations of the NDC office, including an auditing of the council's accounts. They were to investigate a number of irregularities and to decide if the police would be called in.
The council had held no monthly statutory meetings since October last year and in disgust a number of citizens took their complaints and allegations about the performance of the NDC chairman and councillors to the administration of the Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) Regional Democratic Council (RDC) which is the tier above the NDC.
The RDC responded to the complaints by having an investigation conducted by the Deputy Regional Executive Officer who validated the complaints. The RDC forwarded the findings to the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development for advice but no response had been sent to the RDC, Region Four Chairman, Allan Munroe told Stabroek News.
First Statutory Meeting
At the first statutory meeting for the year, which was held at the NDC office at Nabaclis two Mondays ago, a large number of residents attended and seating accommodation was inadequate.
According to councillors and residents, there is always a full house in the gallery at statutory meetings but because meetings had not been held for a while there was an unusually large number. The meeting, which started at about 2 pm went until around 6 pm as the council tried to deal with the many issues before it. Some 20 persons brought complaints about unfavourable dealings they had with Henry, and they sought redress from the council.
Henry was not there to respond to the complaints. When contacted, he told Stabroek News that he was going to speak with this newspaper but he has not been available since. He said, however, that the allegations against him were due to a political vendetta.
The Neighbourhood
The Grove/Haslington Neighbourhood is one of the largest in Region Four and the largest on the East Coast Demerara, covering some 18 villages and communities.
The villages from the west are Haslington, Golden Grove, Nabaclis, Cove, John (the two villages are often referred to as Cove and John), Craig Milne, Victoria, Belfield, Nootenzuil, Lowland, Hope, Doch Four, Two Friends, Ann's Grove, Clonbrook, Beehive, Greenf-ield and Chapman Grove.
The Grove/Haslington neighbourhood is bordered by the Enmore/Hope Neighbour-hood in the west and the Unity/Mahaica Neighbourhood in the east.
The two most densely populated areas are Victoria and Ann's Grove accounting for some 8,000 people from the NDC. The other communities are less populated. The main Neighbourhood office is found at Nabaclis with two suboffices at Ann's Grove and Victoria. The main purpose of the suboffices is to facilitate the collection of rates and taxes. The suboffices previously housed the offices of the local authorities also known as the village offices, which preceded the establishment of the Neighbourhoods.
Short of full complement
The NDC which administers and manages the affairs of the neighbourhood is still six short of its full complement. The full council should consist of eighteen councillors. A full council was elected to serve in the 1994 local government elections.
In the 1994 elections, two groups the Haslington/Grove Community Development Group (HGCDG) and the PPP/C contested the elections with the HGCDG securing 13 of the 18 seats and the PPP/C, the remaining five. At present there are 11 councillors from the HGCDG and one from the PPP/C still serving on the council.
Interim chairman elected
Since the noconfidence vote and the failure of Chairman Henry to resign, the councillors elected councillor Bertie De Weaver to act as the chairman. The vote of noconfidence came after Henry failed to attend a meeting of the council to deal with a number of allegations brought against him.
However, Henry had acknowledged receipt of the resolution of the noconfidence vote and the invitation to the meeting from the acting clerk/acting overseer and councillors but asked to be excused at the meeting. He had also expressed regret for not attending the ordinary meeting of the council on March 9. He had promised to respond to the allegations in writing but said later he could not do so because the services of the typist of the NDC were curtailed.
He asked that systems be put in place so he could have uninterrupted service from the typist to respond to the allegations but members of the council felt that in view of the noconfidence vote, the services should not be made available.
From the attendance by residents at Monday's statutory meeting it would appear that they had been waiting for some time to get their grievances known or to get some redress for what they felt were wrongdoings or inactivity on the part of the council.
Many complaints lodged
At the last council meeting, there were about twenty persons who lodged complaints, all relating to alleged irregularities of the council and chairman.
The complaints were many. One woman claimed that she had bought land from the council and paid the money to Henry. Henry, she said, had issued no receipt for monies paid for the purchase though there was a document signed by him giving the woman permission to occupy the land. However, the same plot of land has also been sold by the NDC to another person who is now claiming it.
How will the council decide who owns the land? The council has taken the decision to have a meeting with both persons to see to whom the land was first given to. The council will then seek to obtain another plot of land for the other if that person agrees, while at the same time trying to recover the money which the first woman claims she paid.
Another woman producing receipts for expenses she incurred in repairing a stall in the Golden Grove market and for which she paid rent now claims that Henry authorised another person to take over the stall. The council is to investigate whether the stall was repossessed for not being in use over time, in which case the stall owner should have been informed.
Another resident who resides in the neighbourhood enquired about the status of land on which he was born, claiming that it was also ancestral lands bought by his greatgrandfather, a freed African slave. He said that someone else was now occupying the land. He produced a transport for the land and receipts to show that he had paid his rates and taxes. He enquired of the council how it was that it could sell or lease his land to someone else without informing him. He said, too, that he had children who need land. He is refraining from taking legal action, he said, until he knows what the council is about. This matter is to be investigated by the council and some action taken, since it was understood that the council had granted the land to an employee of the NDC.
More controversy
Another controversial report which came before the council was one in which a young woman claimed she had been seeking a house lot from the council and had paid the NDC chairman $45,000 as he requested some time last year. He had promised her a house lot at Belfield. She has not received the land and had been asking the chairman about the land ever since. She said the chairman had told her to pay the money to his secretary, which she did. The secretary acknowledged at the meeting that she had received the money and handed it over to Henry. However, the woman said she was never issued with a receipt by the secretary or the chairman for the money she paid. The secretary said that she too was not given a receipt by the chairman when she turned over the money to him.
The woman said further that whenever she saw the chairman she would ask him about the land and he would tell her that the NDC office was dealing with the matter but whenever she checked there, the officers would tell her they knew nothing about the matter. On the last occasion, she said, the chairman told her that the secretary had the lease for the land and when she checked, the secretary told her she knew nothing of the matter.
Because of this royal runaround, she said, there was no other option but to take the matter to the council, as it was "hard in the first instance to obtain the money."
Obtain receipts
The council took the decision to seek a plot of land for the woman who paid the money which cannot be accounted for since the transaction was done in the name of the council. It will also further investigate the matter of the missing funds with a view to obtaining the money to pay for the land.
Councillor Maurice Sertima cautioned residents to conduct council business at the appropriate offices and not on the streets. He warned too that they need to obtain receipts at all times from the council and to ensure proper documentation for business done in the council's name.
Sertima noted that when auditing of the council's accounts is done funds would have to be accounted for. He cautioned that when lands are leased and funds are not accounted for, someone will be held culpable and that person would most likely be the chief accounting officer, namely, the overseer.
A contractor also appeared before the council claiming that he was owed the sum of about $500,000 for a contract to clean a trench, which he had executed last year. He had been paid about $200,000. The council stated it did not have the funds to pay him in full but undertook to pay him as early as possible.
Payments for electricity
Another source of discontent was the payment of money by a number of residents for electricity in the Golden Grove `C' area. Some 40 residents claimed to have paid between $15,000 to $25,000 to the NDC for the procurement of electricity from the Guyana Power and Light (GPL). The acting overseer of the NDC told the meeting that he received the monies but handed over the full sum to the chairman. However, he had no receipt or documentation to show that he had handed over the money to the chairman. ]
Residents told Stabroek News the understanding they had with the chairman, who was representing the council, was that they would pay the $25,000 to the council and the council would disburse the balance for the residents to obtain electricity. The residents, they said, had been told to pay up their rates and taxes to obtain this concession from the council. This meeting with the residents was also held at the offices of the NDC.
One woman told the meeting that she was seeking the remaining $5,000, which she is still owed for paying the money for the lights. She said that the chairman had given her $10,000 and the overseer had paid over to her another $10,000.
Councillors could not say whether the chairman had paid back the money from his own pocket or from money which he is holding for the council. It was reported at the meeting that a teacher had been paid back the $25,000, which she had paid for the electricity.
Who is culpable?
Some councillors felt that the council should not take the responsibility for compensating residents who conducted business with the chairman or other councillors without proper documentation but those cases should be investigated and the person or persons held culpable should be made to pay or give redress.
The majority ruled, however, since the chairman had been conducting business on behalf of the council, it should be held culpable for the actions of the chairman. The chairman, they noted, also wrote GPL to request the company's assistance in laying down the required infrastructure on behalf of the council. Some felt, too, that the council should be held culpable because officers and councillors knew what was taking place. Some denied they knew anything.