SRC levied, equipment seized

SHARLENE RAMPERSAD

FIVE vehicles, including a water tender, were seized from the Siparia Regional Corporation (SRC) yesterday after the corporation failed to pay a $750,000 judgement against it.

Chairman Dr Glenn Ramadharsingh said bailiffs representing a former SRC employee, in whose favour the judgement was granted in 2017, descended on the SRC yesterday.

The man took action against the corporation after he was injured on the job in 2011. His spine was injured by a falling plank while he was constructing a box drain. “Surprisingly, they came and levied on the corporation and took up two three-ton trucks, a new dump truck, a Navara pickup and the water tender,” Ramadharsingh said.

“We got a copy of a judgement that was delivered on April 24, 2017, which said we have to pay him $750,000. We agreed to pay this money. We were just working out the payment method.”

He said the corporation did not have the funds to make the payment, “because this was an extraordinary request and amount – usually our budget is only catered for the entire year for about $50,000 or so – and this was a request for $750,000,” he explained.

Ramadharsingh said the SRC received messages from the Ministry of Local Government in December, advising it to use the funds from its unspent balances for the payment.

He said because of insufficient funding from the ministry, the SRC cannot find the funds to pay without going into its unspent balances.

“Because of the inadequate and poor releases from the Ministry of Local Government, we were not able to find and cannot find that money within the corporation and so we had to look at unspent balances.”