GOVT. RESPONSIBLE FOR SORDID...

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C o u n c i l s a r e t h e responsibilityoftheCouncil.

In the execution of its functionstheCouncilhasan Administration which is responsible to the Council for the execution of its functions,inthemannerthat the council so resolves, providedthatitisultravires

The administration is headed by the Regional Executive Officer (REO) who by virtue of the assumption of that office as Clerk to the Council also assumes the position of REO.

That position and its Terms of Reference are provided for in the LDOA whereitisspecificallystated that “clerk means the chief executive officer, however styled of a regional democraticcouncil”;andthe provisions of the Municipal and District Councils act which shall apply mutatis mutandis to the regional democratic council, inclusive of the functions of theClerkasstatedinsection 32(b)“anyreferencestothe clerk or treasurer shall be construed as a reference to the clerk or chief finance officer (however styled) respectively of a regional democraticcouncil”.

The Sixth Schedule of the Municipal District Council Act in reference to the Clerk specifically states at paras 6 and 10 respectively:

“He shall have the duty ofensuringthatthebusiness of the council is carried out with order, regularity and expedition in accordance withtheby-laws,resolutions and standing orders of the council” and “He shall have responsibility for conveying decisions of the council to the local government officers in the service of the councilrelatingtotheirwork andconduct.”

It is therefore absurd for theREOtohavesaid:“heis not accountable to the Council and committees established by Regional

Chairman” and “that he is only accountable to the Council when serving as Clerk of the Council at statutorymeetings”

Wi t h r e g a r d t o committees the Municipal and Districts Council Act specifies that “… Council shallprovideandatalltimes maintain the standing committees” and that a “council may appoint general or special committees ” The committees are authentic and integral to the regional democratic councils and may even be authorized to actonbehalfofthecouncils.

In regard to his appointment as Accounting Officer,hisremitislimitedto ensuring that expenditures are incurred in keeping with the budgeted provisions and transactions conducted in keeping with the Financial Regulations.

TheREOofRegion10is undoubtedlymisguidedand/ or uninformed about, or malicious in, in relation to his relationship with the Council, of which he is a servant, and to which he is subordinate.

Given the adamant position of the REO and the obvious backing of Central Government, there may be need, as a minimum course of action, for judicial interpretations and declarations on these matters.

Yourssincerely,

VincentAlexander

Former Regional ExecutiveOfficer Local

Government Consultant

most of the indentured servants originated

However, Chautal has almost disappeared in India but very intriguingly has survived and indeed flourished in Guyana, Trinidad, Suriname and Fiji and their diasporas in North America and Netherlands.

B u t b o t h i n t h e instrumentation - from the single dholak (barrel drum) and Jhaals (cymbals) and Dhantal (steel rod and Ushapedclapper)-Fijiansand Surinamese now use several dholaks and sometimes the large booming Tadja drum while Guyanese are introducing Tassa Drums.

Continuityandchange.

What the event brought to my mind was the everincreasing blurring and disintegration of boundaries between the descendants of

North and South Indians as they navigated the field of institutions created by s u c c e s s i v e l y ; t h e plantations, the colonial and thenthepost-colonialstates; tobecome“Indians”.Priorto them, individuals from diverse tribes of West and Central Africa had also had their differences obliterated to become “Africans” after theslaveexperience.

W h i l e i t i s a commonplace to “explain” thepresentrelationsbetween the Africans and Indians by the latter undercutting the wages of the former when they were brought in, we must remember that fortytwo thousand African West Indians, fourteen thousand Chinese and thirteen thousandWestAfricanswere alsobroughtintoalso

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