Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie - file photo
Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie announced Thursday morning that his Ministry has intervened in the operations at the Hanover Parish Council, taking control of certain documents as it seeks to ascertain certain issues of grave concern.
Minister McKenzie, speaking at a special meeting of the Council, also announced that an audit will be carried out into its operations. The audit team will be given three weeks to complete the investigation, but, in the interim, he will require reports on the progress of the investigation. At the end of the three weeks, he will make a decision based on the findings.
Mr. Mckenzie said the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) has also raised concern about the Council's procurement committee and the technical team. The procurement committee, he said, had not followed the guidelines set in the procurement process. The technical team, however, will be strengthened with two additional building officers, added to complement the staff at the Parish Council.
Mr. McKenzie chided the Council's management team, saying it failed to implement the recommendations from the OCG, following the resignation of Shernette Haughton as Chairman of the Parish Council and Mayor of Lucea.
The OCG, in another report on the Parish Council, released last week, cited misconduct on the part of two Councillors in the award of contracts.
Previous interventions
There have been previous interventions in the operations of local government bodies by the country's Central Government.
On October 18, 1984 Prime Minister Edward Seaga dissolved the Kingston & St. Andrew Corporation for a period of two years, citing "financial irresponsibility" and "gross mismanagement".
He announced that during that two-year period, the powers and duties of the KSAC would be vested in the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, while some functions of the Corporation would be transfered to ministries with similar functions and, in other instances, contractors would be asked to carry out certain functions normally performed by the KSAC.
Twenty years before that - on June 23, 1964 - the KSAC was also dissolved, and a Commisisoner and Deputy Commissioner put in charge of the capital city's affairs.
That decision was based on a report which concluded that the mayor, councillors and officers of the KSAC were "grossly negligent".
Royalton Hotel report
Mr. McKenzie is to also release the findings of a report on the building collapse at the Royalton Hotel construction site in Hanover.
He announced at the meeting of the Council that the technical team at his ministry has recommended that the stop order be removed from the buildings not affected by the collapse. However, the stop order will remain in effect for the section of the building which collapsed.
The minister made clear that the Parish Council had granted approval for the construction to take place; however, the Contractor General has concluded that there was negligence on the part of the contractors and, in some cases, there was a lack of monitoring from the Parish Council.
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