Region 6 REO reportedly abandons post
REGION Six Executive Officer (REO) Dr Veerasammy Ramayya has reportedly ceased performing the duties of Regional Executive Officer without formally resigning from the position.Vice Chairman Mr Dennis De Roop, in a press briefing at the Regional Chairman’s Office in Vryman’s Erven, New Amsterdam, told reporters: “The region got a setback now, we having a little confusion: the REO has left; I must say he walk off the job. There is no correspondence to say he is on leave (and) there is no approval of leave for him. I am of the opinion that he voluntary walk off the job. I was made to understand he gone overseas; however, we [Region Six Administration] (are) yet to receive a correspondence from the Ministry of Communities about the issue.”
According to De Roop, the REO’s absence has left several issues unresolved, such as the awarding of contracts. “Further, the 2016 budget is limping. We are in the seventh month and we have only achieved 40 to 45 per cent of programmes proposed. There are salary issues, some of the sweeper/cleaners of the schools are yet to be paid for June month. They work for the minimum wage and are dependent on their monies. There is not much we can do, as the REO did not sign their contracts on time. Hopefully, it can be resolved at the end of the week.
“I must apologise on behalf of the Regional Administration. In addition, several contracts were not signed for nurses, so they, too, will not be receiving salaries, because if the contracts are not renewed, salaries cannot be processed,” he stated.
The Vice Chair added: “The machine operators’ monies have been received from the National Drainage and Irrigation (Authority) after they had protested last month due to non-payment of salaries and wages. But they, too, cannot be paid, as their contracts were not prepared nor was it signed by the REO.
“In addition, close of 300 cheques were returned due to their ‘stale’ date. This is gross negligence. Some were issued to small suppliers of dietary essentials while some were awarded to small contractors. The cheques were not signed, and were sitting at the sub-treasury exceeding the stipulated period, and had to be returned.”
De Roop revealed that, over the last two weeks, the REO had been in office for not more than two hours per day, resulting in unfinished work back-logging.
“I have met with the two Deputy REOs, (Mr Claude Henry and Mr Badassie Poonai) and we will work towards having the issues resolved,” he said.
The Regional Democratic Council had, last May, successfully moved a motion to rescind the decisions made by Ramayya.
This newspaper’s efforts to contact Ramayya have proved futile.
