Local Government Minister Franklin Khan has initiated an investigation into the appointment of a low-level employee who is overseeing $24 million taxpayers’ dollars at the Couva /Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation.
The employee, who has not been appointed by the Public Service Commission, is acting in the post of a senior executive for a senior official who is on three months paid vacation leave.
In an interview Khan said the matter was first raised by alderman Sunil Ramjitsingh.
“I forwarded the issue to the permanent secretary because the minister has no direct involvement in the Public Service. I have asked for an investigation into the allegations and details about the appointment of the employee,” Khan said.
Saying the PSC has its own procedures, Khan said once he was briefed, he would issue a later comment.
Ramjitsingh who wrote a two-page letter to Khan, said there was potential for the mismanagement of public funds as the employee now had responsibility to pay staff and purchase materials.
Claiming the worker “has been wrongly appointed,” Ramjitsingh said: “The employee is involved in implementation of projects and cannot account to himself or be the final certifier of his own work for payment.”
Ramjitsingh also noted that the appointment of chief officers under Section 35 of the Municipal Corporations Act 21 of 1990 stated that it was the Service Commission who appointed Chief Officers including CEO’s.
Saying the appointment of the employee presents a “serious conflict of interest, zero accountability and transparency,” Ramjitsingh added: “Such a scenario presents a situation of ‘himself unto himself’ and renders (the employee) a law unto himself,” he added.
He noted that the employee had been involved in “developing the scope of works for projects, generating estimates, the tender process, evaluation and selection of contractors, and supervising and verifying work done for projects under the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) that are currently in progress to the tune of over $3.358 million and a further $2 million in contracts awaiting to be awarded.”
Ramjitsingh said the Corporation’s Finance Committee meeting was held yesterday and there was a request to renew the contracts of 59 clerical workers at a total of $819,720, including 19 health control officers, two disaster field officers and 28 clerks.
Contacted yesterday, chairman of the corporation, Henry Awong, said that appointment has been done before.
“Personally I have no problem once the work gets done but if there is a problem with him carrying out the functions for the senior executive and this hampers the work of the corporation, then there is a problem. We may need some advice on this,” Awong added.
He said the employee had already agreed that he would not sign building plans and could only operate at a limited capacity.