RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Siparia May­or Dood­nath Mayrhoo has chal­lenged his UNC col­leagues to pro­vide ev­i­dence of al­leged cor­rup­tion to the po­lice, in­sist­ing he has noth­ing to hide.

His state­ment fol­lowed UNC coun­cil­lor for Mon De­sir, Deryk Bowrin’s an­nounce­ment of a mo­tion of no con­fi­dence against Mayrhoo, sched­uled for lat­er this month. 

The mo­tion co­in­cides with a po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to miss­ing ma­te­ri­als from a state stock­pile at Thick Vil­lage, Fyz­abad.

Speak­ing at a press con­fer­ence at his Siparia of­fice yes­ter­day, Mayrhoo said he vis­it­ed the Fyz­abad Po­lice Sta­tion on Sat­ur­day and con­firmed he is not named as a sus­pect in any in­ves­ti­ga­tion. He said the mo­tion of no con­fi­dence must be ap­proved by him first.

“I will ap­prove it, and it will fail,” Mayrhoo said. He added, “I want Deryck Bowrin and Al­der­man Vic­tor Roberts, on the day when the vote of no con­fi­dence fails, to have their let­ters of res­ig­na­tion in hand to re­sign as an al­der­man and coun­cil­lor.”

Mayrhoo crit­i­cised Roberts, ac­cus­ing him of be­ing more fo­cused on cor­rup­tion al­le­ga­tions than con­tribut­ing to the coun­cil’s work. 

“What has Vic­tor Roberts done to help this coun­cil?” Mayrhoo asked.

He re­ject­ed al­le­ga­tions against him.

In re­sponse, Al­der­man Roberts ques­tioned the cor­po­ra­tion’s prac­tices. He said, “At the ninth fi­nance meet­ing, a vouch­er came in for pay­ment, but there were se­ri­ous dis­crep­an­cies. I in­di­cat­ed to the coun­cil this war­rants an in­ves­ti­ga­tion. The doc­u­ment was sus­pend­ed for three meet­ings. They wait­ed un­til the fi­nan­cial year was about to close, then pushed through the doc­u­ment. They vot­ed on it, but I and a few peo­ple ab­stained.”

He ad­mit­ted to lodg­ing a com­plaint with the pro­cure­ment reg­u­la­tor in Port-of-Spain.

“I am not mak­ing mis­chief. I am a guy that stands trans­par­ent with every­thing. I have no per­son­al prob­lem with the may­or. I am say­ing he must obey reg­u­la­tions.”

Deputy May­or Shankar Teelucks­ingh said there was no need for a mo­tion of no con­fi­dence against the may­or. “Come with ev­i­dence if you mak­ing al­le­ga­tions,” Teelucks­ingh said. Coun­cil­lor Ra­mona Vic­tor al­so called for ev­i­dence.

To re­move the may­or, ten mem­bers of the coun­cil would need to sup­port the mo­tion at the next statu­to­ry meet­ing. Roberts, Bowrin and for­mer UNC coun­cil­lor Ja­son Ali, who is now a PNM coun­cil mem­ber, have open­ly crit­i­cised Mayrhoo ac­cus­ing him of be­ing hos­tile be­cause of their sup­port for Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray.