City Engineer accuses Council of political move in recommending his dismissal

The motion which was tabled by Councilors Heston Bostwick and Clayton Hinds in December came up for discussion and passage at Monday’s statutory meeting of the Council, which was the first for this new year.

City Engineer accuses Council of political move in recommending his dismissal

The Georgetown Mayor and City Council has passed a motion seeking the termination of the services of City Engineer Colvern Venture over alleged underperformance.

The motion which was tabled by Councilors Heston Bostwick and Clayton Hinds in December came up for discussion and passage at Monday’s statutory meeting of the Council, which was the first for this new year.

Councilors from the APNU and AFC supported the motion while the PPP Councilors abstained from voting. City Mayor Ubraj Narine said the City Engineer has been repeatedly failing at his job.

“There is a lot of work the City Engineer did not execute and so the motion was brought before the House and it was debated and it was put to a vote” the Mayor explained.

The motion now allows the City Council to formally submit a recommendation to the Local Government Commission for the City Engineer’s services with the Council to be terminated. It will be up to the Local Government Commission to have the final determination of the matter.

The City Engineer in the past has complained about not being supported by the current Council and being targeted by some Councilors.

The Mayor said he hopes that the Local Government Commission will do its work and allow the Council to move on with its work with a new City Engineer in place.

“The Mayor and City Councillors did their part, so anything after the Local Government Commission has to deal with it. If the Local Government Commission fails to deal with the said motion, they are encouraging some kind of slackness at the level of the municipality”

Speaking on the decision of the Council to recommend his firing, the City Engineer pointed out that the decision of the Council remains unfair since it did not follow the protocols with respect to the removal of an employee.

City Mayor Ubraj Narine

“Within each organization, you would have apprised people’s work performance and it’s not done by everyone providing their personal views and assess it like that. So the procedure in terms of a motion does not make provisions for natural justice, it does not measure work performance”, he complained.

He said that there was no mention of a motion of confidence that duly regulates the process of a firing of a staff that forms part of the standing orders.

Added to that, Mr. Venture pointed out that the Council never evaluated his work.

He said his department is dependent on other departments within the Council to carry out its functions and therefore he does not believe he should be singled out when there are issues in relation to work not being completed.

“There are allegations. The allegations made they have to bring the facts forth” Venture noted.

He is now accusing the City Council of being political in its decision to remove him.

“The use of the motion in my view is just a political tool that is being used by the Mayor and a clique of his councilors to try to remove officers”, he noted.

Mr. Venture said he would like the Local Government Commission to be fair in its assessment of the situation before making any decision regarding his job.  

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