The Rose Hall Town Council has been ordered by the Local Government Commission (LGC) to rescind the hiring of a Town Clerk for the municipality, since according to the Commission approval was not granted by them for the vacancy to be filled.
The LGC outlined that the law states in section 13 (2) of the Local Government Commission Act 2013 that “The Commission SHALL deal with all matters relating to staffing of local government organs and in particular shall- (a) be responsible for employment, transfer, discipline and dismissal of staff.”
“The Rose Hall Town Council has clearly acted outside of its remit, and has been instructed by letter from the Commission to rescind the hiring of any person so appointed to fill the vacant position of Town Clerk of that municipality,” the LGC said in a press statement on Thursday, while noting that “this vacancy will only be filled upon the consideration and written approval of the Commissioners of the Local Government Commission of Guyana as provided for by law.”
According to the statement, the Rose Hall Town Council approached the LGC seeking permission to hire a Town Clerk to fill the vacancy for this post within the Council and the Commission agreed to delegate to the Council and all other local government organs, “the authority of recruitment (advertising shortlisting and interviewing) for staff.”
However, it was further explained that the Commission required that all local government organs write informing the Commission of such vacancies “before engaging in the recruitment procedure (advertising shortlisting and interviewing) and consequent recommendation for appointment by the Local Government Commission.”
Furthermore, the LGC said that the “Rose Hall Council was also informed in this letter dated March 21st, 2018 that the local government organs shall ensure that an officer of the Local Government Commission is present during the shortlisting and interviewing process.”
But, according to the Commission, this did not obtain as the “Rose Hall Town Council executed these delegated tasks and exceeded this clearly outlined mandate by purporting to hire a Town Clerk, clearly in contravention to the stated delegated functions.”
As such, the LGC said it “wrote to the Council again on April 10th, 2018 instructing them to rescind this action.”
Mayor of Rose Hall, Vijay Kumar Ramoo, was quoted in the media explaining that that the decision was taken due to the dire need for the position to be filled in the interest of the municipality.
Moreover, he said that Councillors were informed about the hiring of the Town Clerk at the municipality’s last statutory meeting and approved the decision.
