The Guyana Parliament was paying rent of over $200,000 for a house in Georgetown, that former Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Karen Cummings never occupied, a source close to her has said.
Cummings and three other former ministers: Simona Broomes; Valerie Yearwood and Haimraj Rajcoomar have been given notice to leave the houses the state were paying the rent for. Village Voice was told that the directive to the ex-ministers is misplaced as the officials do not have to leave the houses, but rather the Parliament should stop paying the rent. “You can’t tell them to leave the house, you can stop paying the rent because these individuals were the ones who went about to secure the houses…so Parliament would have to look at that,” Village Voice was told.
However, the source said as regard, Dr Cummings, “Parliament was paying for a house that she never lived in. She remained at her Belfield, East Coast Demerara house throughout the tenure of the last government…”
The source said it was inconceivable that the former minister had actually rented the house. “The house was empty, she spent money to do landscaping and got someone to do gardening, but actually never lived there. She went there a few times and perhaps overnighted once…but Karen never lived there…it was a waste of money,” the source revealed. Dr Cummings could not be contacted to respond to the claims. Since the change of administration a number of coalition officials have been asked to vacate government buildings to make way for the new officials.
In a Facebook post on Thursday the coalition said that within hours of being sworn in the Irfaan Ali began a massive witch hunting programme. And no sooner had the government taken office than it demonstrated a blatant desire to target staff in some of the Government Ministries and Departments.
The coalition accused Minister responsible for Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira of showing disregard for law, alleging that she instructed Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, the evict four former Ministers from their rented homes. “The National Assembly, like the Guyana Elections Commission, is an autonomous body. It is beholden to no one but the Constitution. But Teixeira, with all the venom in her system, instructed Isaacs to write to former Ministers Simona Broomes, Valarie Adams-Patterson, Karen Cummings and Haimraj Rajkumar. The letter informs the former ministers that they have 36 hours to vacate the premises,” the coalition statement read.
“These buildings are rented by the government through the National Assembly. The contract between Public Buildings and the landlord is that each would give the other one month’s notice in the vent that the premises would be vacated.”
