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Lucea mayor blasts non-performing staff

Published:Thursday | July 12, 2018 | 12:00 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
Sheridan Samuels

Western Bureau:

Mayor of Lucea Councillor Sheridan Samuels lashed out at staff in two departments during Friday's monthly sitting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation, describing them as incompetent and non-performers.

"I am going to name them, the Roads and Works Department and the Accounts Department," said Samuel. "It is really a headache to us right now; administratively we are getting there, but I am seriously concerned about the operations within these departments."

The mayor noted that there was no shortage of cash at the Hanover Municipal Corporation, yet there are contractors who have completed work on behalf of the corporation for some time and have not been paid.

"Can you imagine one officer leaves the corporation, and the head of that department, who is supposed to ensure that everything is OK, and because that one person is not here, no cheques can be printed from last week?" asked Samuels, who said the guilty staff members were persons transferred from other municipal corporations.

 

'Incompetent People'

 

"We were given some people that I strongly regard as incompetent people, sent to us from other corporations because of political reasons," said Samuels. "They are incompetent, they cannot do the work, and we have to deal with that."

Samuels, who made it clear that he will not continue to tolerate the incompetence and lack of performance, said that the workers in question, must remember that they are civil servants and should be ready to apply themselves and change with the times, when the situations requires it.

In a further show of unhappiness, Samuels asked the five councillors, who were present, if they were satisfied with the operations within the corporation, and they all individually expressed a lack of satisfaction, especially within the Accounts and the Roads and Works departments.

When The Gleaner contacted Huel Jackson, the superintendent for Roads and Works, for a comment, he said that the performance evaluation of the staff members in question should be checked as the evaluations would speak for themselves.