Regional Four chairman mulling caucus to end budget stalemate
Due to the uncertainty over what is included in the Region Four 2022 Budget, Regional Chairman Daniel Seeram is mulling a caucus with councillors to determine the way forward.
A statutory meeting held on Thursday ended abruptly after Regional Executive Officer (REO), Donald Gajraj, who is clerk of the meeting, walked out complaining of feeling threatened by the actions of Seeram.
Opposition members on the council and the REO have been at loggerheads over the past month as they accused Gajraj of failing to inform them in a timely manner of the need to submit project proposals and disenfranchising residents from the process.
Speaking with the Sunday Stabroek on Friday, Seeram explained that with pressing matters on the agenda, the council decided to engage the REO on what projects were proposed in the 2022 budget.
However, as Gajraj moved the address the council, he was asked by Seeram to stand and do so, but the REO said he could not do so since he had an injured foot.
“… We asked if he can produce a medical to justify that, but it was here he got annoyed and got up and walked out the meeting. He did not limp or anything - he walked out,” Seeram said.
Gajraj when contacted on Friday by this newspaper asked that the interview be deferred to tomorrow when he will be in a better position to speak.
Seeram on Friday explained that he plans to meet with the council and discuss how best they can address the issue. He stated that many councillors are unaware of what projects were proposed in the budget and it is unclear which constituencies will benefit.
In the same breath, he stated that he will be writing to President Irfaan Ali, Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Harmon; and Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall; voicing his concerns and seeking their intervention to resolve the issue.
“We will be writing to let our position be known and if we don’t get a response we will know that, this government is not willing to work with us and that will be a dark story for democracy… there is no doubt that we should be included in the process,” Seeram stated. When the issue became public, Seeram had written to the government on the matter and as of Friday said he is still awaiting an acknowledgement
The opposition, which leads the regional government is of the view that residents and constituency leaders should be consulted on projects they will like to see included in the budget. It has been argued that bypassing grassroots consultations would be a grave injustice to residents.
Gajraj in response to the accusation, previously had disputed the claims and told Stabroek News that Seeram had informed the council since July of the need for proposals on projects to be included in the 2022 budget allocations for the region. Seeram and the opposition councillors have claimed that they were only informed
of the need for proposals two days before the deadline.
According to the Regional Chair, councillors have already identified their projects and are awaiting the chance to have them included in the proposed budget.
In a previous report, the Chairman asserted that immediate attention needs to be given to the issue “and that the necessary corrective action begin forthwith,” while adding that “the commandeering” of the region’s budget will not be accepted by the region’s elected officials.
He assured that they strive to work with the government to bring relief, assistance, and improvement to the lives and livelihood of citizens. Towards this end, Seeram has called on President Ali “to correct” what he described as a “malfeasance,” while stating that the elected representatives of the region must be consulted and that the budget must be submitted with the “full blessings” of the RDC.
He surmised that failing to address the concerns raised would only prove government’s “duplicity in their quest for a better Guyana,” while adding that lack of consultation and the “hijacking” of the democratic process reeks of dictatorship and the disenfranchising of the people.
Seeram said that in crafting the regional budget, there are a number of regulations which must be followed, but were breached. For example, he said, that on receipt of the budget circular, it is “supposed to be immediately sent to the office of the Regional Chairman.”
He added that notices will then be dispatched to all regional councillors and that the timelines in the circular are to be shared with each councillor.
He stressed that the preparation of the budget in isolation of the Council, regional stakeholders, and the people, prohibits knowledge of exactly what the budget caters for.
At the meeting held by the committee on September 3, Gajraj was not present and neither did he send a representative from his office. This resulted in the meeting being cancelled.
Responding to this earlier this month, Gajraj told Stabroek News that he was unable to attend the meeting scheduled by the committee since he had to be present at a national meeting of REOs which had been arranged prior.
Further, the REO related that his correspondence was a mere reminder of the need to submit project proposals. He
argued that since councillors were “told to submit projects” by the chairman in July and he hadn’t seen anything presented, he sought to send a reminder. Gajraj stated that during the month of August, there was little communication with Seeram since he was out of the country. Nonetheless, Gajraj said a ministry circular on the budgetary proposals was also sent to
Seeram.The regional chairman acknowledged that at every meeting, the REO reminds councillors to identify projects they will want to see included in the regional budget. However, he said that Gajraj failed to inform them in a timely manner of the deadline for the project proposals.
“The act of Mr Gajraj is deliberate… He is usurping the work of the council. We don’t know what the projects that make up the budget are and he will have to justify to us how he arrived at the projects. There is a process that is followed in preparation of a budget. That includes, consultation, identification of projects and at the end, presentation of the budget to councillors. These things were never done and it will not sit with the council,” Seeram had previously told Stabroek News.