By Malisa Playter Harry
In a recent but shocking turn of events, Regional Executive Officer (REO) of Region 6 Dr. Veersammy Ramayya has apparently “walked off his job”.
During a Press Conference on Monday, Regional Vice Chairman of Region 6, Mr. Dennis Deroop said while no correspondence was received from Dr. Ramayya or the Minister of Communities, he was informed that Dr. Ramayya is currently vacationing overseas and so they are left with the notion that he quit his job without informing anyone.
“The R.E.O has left, he walked off the job I would say, because there is no correspondence to say that he is on leave, so I would consider that he voluntarily walk off the job,” Deroop told media operatives, adding that this has left the Regional Authority in a state of confusion.
He pointed out that issues related to the tender board and the awarding of contracts along with other pending matters of the region are left unresolved.
Mr. Deroop stated that the region has only achieved 40-45% of its budgetary programs for the year 2016 as opposed to the 75% which was expected to be completed by July.
He underscored that there are also issues with salary payments for cleaners and nurses whose contracts were not signed on-time by the REO. Deroop said these persons are still to be paid for the month of June.
According to Deroop, it is unfair to those workers who are being paid a minimum wage; however, he assured that the council is working assiduously to resolve the issues relating to the payment of cleaners before the end of this week.
On the Nurses’ payments, he posited that if the contracts are not renewed and signed the salaries cannot be paid to the health workers.
Noting that the REO, prior to abandoning his post, only showed up for work for an hour or less every day, he said payment vouchers have been left to “pile up”.
In the meantime, meetings were held with the Deputy Regional Executive Officer (DREO) in an effort to sort out as much as they could for the week ahead, even without a formal handing over, Deroop said.
The V.C also revealed that “there have been close to 300 cheques returned. In the history, I can’t remember this region having all those cheques. Almost 300 cheques returned.” Many of the persons he pointed out were small suppliers.
Just recently at a statutory meeting held at the RDC, the REO came under fire from Councillors for not performing his duties as required. He was accused of being absent frequently from work and rarely doing anything when there. Dr. Ramayya is yet to address these accusations.
