Mayor of Georgetown, Ubraj Narine is calling on City Engineer Colvern Venture to resign if he cannot effectively perform his duties.
Six months after taking up office, Mayor Narine continues to face many challenges and according to him, the main issue is poor management and corruption in the Administration Department of City Hall which he says is stymieing the work of the Council.
At a press conference on Tuesday in his office at City Hall, the Mayor said the Mr Venture reportedly failed to respond directly to letters that he [the Mayor] sent him months ago regarding a report about the trip he [Venture] made to China with the previous Mayor in 2017.
According to the Mayor, Mr Venture has not provided a report on his 2017 trip and so he wrote him directly asking for the report given the fact that the Chinese Government is looking to engage the Council about development works in the city.
The Mayor is now claiming that the City Engineer responded to him via the Town Clerk (ag) Sheron Harry Munroe since June 21 but that letter was only given to him on Tuesday morning.
“He did submit it, it was back dated…these letters got the 21st, he said he sent it to me to the Town Clerk.
“Now if I write you…can I be a dreamer to know the letter is at the Town Clerk office? If I write you, you ought to send that correspondence directly to me,” Mayor Narine told the media.
The Mayor said that the City Engineer should have handed over another letter at the last statutory meeting for the Deputy Engineer to act in his place.
“He ought to do a handing over letter and onto now that letter did not submit, left out my letters…I ask this morning the handing over letter yet to submit,” the Mayor said.
The Mayor said that there are also a number of other issues relating to Mr Venture.
“Mr. Venture ought to know there is a hundred things in the city went wrong under his watch and I can point it out…I can go on the field now,” the Mayor said.
According to the Mayor, over the last three weeks, he has been asking Mr Venture to issue a notice about a building that fell on the road in Constituency One.
“When I ask Mr Venture, his word to me he sign off the notice but the inspector fail to address it to the relevant people,” the Mayor said.
The Mayor said another situation at Sandy Babb Street is yet to be solved while the Engineer’s Department is addressing issues of abandoned vehicles in the city.
With all of these issues made against Mr Venture the Mayor says he should resign.
“Mr Venture, if he cannot work for the people’s interest of the city, he should resign…he need to work for the interest of the people and not for himself,” the Mayor said.
When contacted, the City Engineer told the News Room that he believes the issue is a political one and did not want to further comment.
Meanwhile, the Mayor said he intends to stamp out corruption at City Hall and is calling on the administration to adapt to change.
“We are not going to put up with any full stop and chaos that Administration will put Council in, not this Mayor.”
Mayor Narine said there are officers in the administration willing to work with him but are being pushed aside.
“Management for me is very important and management in term of the Administration is very poor and I want to see better management at the level of each department of the Mayor and City Council,” the Mayor said.
Councillor Dawn Stewart agreed with the Mayor and said that the administration department lacks management and urges that there be consequences for unmannerly behaviour.
