Ramadharsingh responds to no-confidence motion

The corporation is almost equally split between the Opposition UNC, which has seven council members (five councillors and two aldermen) and the ruling PNM,which has six council members (four councillors and two aldermen).

The motion of no confidence was filed by PNM alderman Christopher Max Encinas and is expected to be debated at the SRC’s next statutory meeting tomorrow at 1.30pm. The motion needs ten votes or a three-quarter majority to pass.

However, speaking at a press conference at the Fyzabad constituency office yesterday, Ramadharsingh laughed out loud when asked about the political division of members at the council,saying “You will know when they vote on Thursday.” Siparia East/San Francique South councillor Leo Doodnath, a former UNC chairman and current vice chairman, has declared himself an “independent” member who would be “guided by conscience and merit” on all issues brought before the council.

Ramadharsingh described the motion as a “pen-pal memo” which had not adhered to the official procedure for filing an official motion.

He said although the motion was filed on letter-sized paper as opposed to legal-sized paper, the Opposition’s council members were “prepared to respond” to the motion.

Ramadharsingh, added, “This motion is not fit and proper to be laid before council. It was not registered by the CEO of the corporation, who is the administrative head.

We deem it to be illegitimate, ill-advised and badly delivered to the corporate secretary and the CEO, without proper information and due process.” Ramadharsingh then responded to the five clauses of the motion, saying the first point alluded to the introduction of a chairman’s outreach initiative, when in fact there was a SRC initiative, and not a chairman’s initiative.

“What has happened, after the first successful one that had 300 persons in Cedros, we agreed to discontinue until we have a retreat with the Opposition, and that was approved,” he said.

He said the second point said the chairman was aware of a truck, a backhoe and a driver being used at Coromandel village, but pointed out that he was not the dispatcher at the corporation.

“I do not preside over the garage, I don’t work in the personnel department, I don’t approve overtime, and my checks have told me this power lies with the county superintendent,” he said.

“In the clean-up campaign, there were 50 trucks on the road, and about 15 backhoe picking up rubbish, helping the national community, a project of the ministry.

We are not members of the Government, we are an Opposition council, and we supported the goodwill of the minister, and I think this flies in the face of the goodwill of the minister,” he said.

On financial propriety at the corporation, he said, “I hold fast to the ideals and the integrity and morality in public life and for proper disbursement of the public funds.”