Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Siparia May­or Dood­nath Mayrhoo is now fac­ing the threat of a no-con­fi­dence mo­tion against him fol­low­ing an­oth­er wave of cor­rup­tion al­le­ga­tions.

It comes from Mon De­sir coun­cil­lor Deryck Bowrin, who claimed that Mayrhoo made cer­tain al­le­ga­tions in a com­mit­tee meet­ing at the Siparia Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion on Wednes­day that he be­lieves were di­rect­ed to­wards him.

On Mon­day, a spe­cial statu­to­ry meet­ing at the cor­po­ra­tion de­scend­ed in­to chaos af­ter the may­or ac­cused some coun­cil­lors of by­pass­ing stan­dard pro­ce­dures to ac­cess ma­te­ri­als.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Bowen claimed that at the Fi­nance, Plan­ning and Al­lo­ca­tion of Re­sources Com­mit­tee meet­ing, the may­or made some al­le­ga­tions per­tain­ing to cor­rup­tion.

While the may­or did not call any names, Bowrin said some of the al­le­ga­tions con­cerned his elec­toral dis­trict. 

He said, “At the next meet­ing of our Spe­cial Plan­ning Com­mit­tee, I stood up and in­di­cat­ed to the coun­cil that un­less the may­or brings ev­i­dence of these al­le­ga­tions, that I will be bring­ing a mo­tion of no con­fi­dence.”

Bowrin told Guardian Me­dia he was giv­ing the may­or un­til Wednes­day to pro­vide proof, oth­er­wise he would file the no-con­fi­dence mo­tion. 

He said the may­or men­tioned a project that was done dur­ing a ma­jor flood at Sil­ver Stream in 2017 and ques­tioned the amount of mon­ey paid to the con­trac­tor to do the job.

He said the may­or al­so raised ques­tions about ma­te­r­i­al from the San Fer­nan­do to Point Fortin High­way project, which he said was in­tend­ed for the cor­po­ra­tion but went else­where.

He said the ma­te­r­i­al was giv­en to his dis­trict to be used to help those in need. 

“When these items came to Siparia, I lodged it at Ir­win Park and an­nounced to the coun­cil that they can use as need­ed. He was al­so a mem­ber of the coun­cil present. As a mat­ter of fact, I was told that some of it was used in his dis­trict. I should al­so men­tion that some of the ma­te­r­i­al was go­ing to be dumped be­cause it got sea blast.”

When Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed the may­or, he said he nev­er men­tioned any­one’s name in the meet­ing and the mat­ter was un­der po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion. 

He chal­lenged Bowrin to file the no-con­fi­dence mo­tion against him.