Investigation to be launched into $2M invoice approved by Reg. 4 Chair

An investigation is set to be launched at the Region Four Regional Democratic Council (RDC) after it was discovered that the recently appointed Chair, Daniel Seeram approved a more than $2 million dollar invoice for a scheduled leadership conference at the Bladen Hall Secondary School.
The two-day leadership conference is slated for November 19 and 20.
The invoice seen by Kaieteur News amounts to $2,089,640 for services rendered by the company which also included an $180,000 service charge to “execute the Client’s vision,” for servers and also payment to the Coordinator.

The invoice was sent on November 2, 2020 by Events Manager Kurt Campbell on behalf of ‘Jonas Bridal House Event Planning Services’ and addressed directly to the Vice Chairman, Samuel Sandy. On that very invoice was the Regional Chair’s stamp with “Approval granted for councillors conference.”
But this should not have occurred.

Local Government and Regional Development Minister, Nigel Dharmlall explained to Kaieteur News that both the Chair and Vice Chairman “overstepped their boundaries” as any monetary transaction for the region is handled by the Regional Executive Officer (REO) who also doubles as the head of the Regional Tender Board.
“It was brought to my attention,” the Minister stated, “and that is not the way procedures are done. Usually, the councillors are not supposed to be receiving quotations and neither are councillors supposed to be approving quotations. So I think that is an egregious act.”
Added to that, there was no evidence of proper procurement process being undertaken for the project, “so that in itself, is a total breach of procurement procedures and procurement law,” Minister Dharmlall said.

“I do not think that this bodes well for the good governance of Region 4 and councillors have to respect their boundaries because they have overstepped their boundaries and overreached into the authority of regional administration,” he continued.
Meanwhile, the APNU+AFC Coalition Opposition in a statement called on the governing administration to end attempts to “dominate and control Regions.”

The Coalition noted that the constitution is clear on who is responsible for the management and development of the Region, making it clear that “The people in Regions 4, 7 and 10 have chosen the APNU+AFC Coalition as the political party they want to manage the affairs of their region.”
It states in Article 74 (1) that “It shall be the primary duty of local democratic organs to ensure in accordance with the law, the efficient management and development of their areas and to provide leadership by example,” it explained.

The Opposition pointed out too, that government’s attempt to determine the plans and programmes of the Region violates Article 77 of the Constitution which says that “The development programme of each region shall be integrated into the national development plans, and the government shall allocate funds to each region to enable it to implement.”