The Local Government Commission (LGC) has accepted the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into operations at City Hall and will be forwarding the report to the Guyana Police Force to facilitate investigations into possible criminal wrong-doing by Town Clerk Royston King.
Stabroek News spoke with several commissioners who indicated that following a four-hour meeting the LGC decided to immediately implement the recommendations made in relation to King. Additionally both King and other officers against whom disciplinary action was recommended will be given an opportunity to defend themselves in the coming week.
“I believe that Justice Kennard did a comprehensive job but the commission intends to be cautious as we envisage challenges. King will be given an opportunity to make representation on his position in fact all nine officers will be summoned to the LGC to defend themselves against the charges laid in the report,” Commissioner Marlon Williams indicated.
In his report to the LGC, retired Justice Cecil Kennard who was the sole member of the CoI, charged King with gross misconduct, abuse of office, recklessness, dishonesty and conspiracy among other things.
Deputy Town Clerk Sharon Harry-Munroe was charged with dereliction of duty and incompetence as was Assistant Town Clerk Sherry Jerrick.
Other officers charged include Internal Auditor Omodele Umojo-Newton whom Kennard maintained was incompetent and had conspired with King since according to a “credible source” she has been issuing contracts rather than performing audits on source documents.
Chief Constable Andrew Foo has been charged with dereliction of duty, and incompetence as has City Engineer Colvern Venture. Meanwhile Engineer Rashid Kellman has been charged with conspiracy and Human Resources Paulette Braithwaite has been charged with incompetence;
Meanwhile City Treasurer Ron McCalman whom the CoI recommended proceed on early retirement due to illness has already submitted a request to Council for same. McCalman has been absent from duty since February and Kennard noted that to be absent from such an important position is clearly undesirable.
While he had not recommended specific disciplinary actions in any of the referenced cases Kennard specifically noted that “most of the woes of the city are due to mismanagement by officers of the council” asking “if the main management team is incompetent, are we going to keep them in their positions?”
Williams stressed that King will be given an opportunity to defend himself but another commissioner indicated that the implementation of all recommendations in relation to the Town Clerk is a “done deal.”
“We have immediately taken some decisions which will not materialize till Friday because of the holidays this week and some decision will be further delayed since we can’t do everything at once but the Town Clerk is a done deal,” the commissioner indicated.
The GPF is set to be called in since the LGC lacks the “ability to conduct investigations of the type recommended.”
King was specifically taken to task for the lease of land which has been claimed by the government holding company, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).
Kennard concluded that King overstepped his bounds when he approved and signed the lease without informing council and in the process misrepresented the ownership of the property.
“The Town Clerk has no authority to issue leases. That, according to my understanding of the law, first has to go to the Finance Committee and then to the full council for approval…King had no authority to issue any lease in relation to the land at Sussex Street,” Kennard contended, adding that since the land, which was leased by King to Quick Shipping Inc, belongs to NICIL “he misrepresented that (the) City Council owned land” and performed actions which “could amount to criminal action”
Further Kennard questioned the leasing agreement noting that in light of the bankrupt state of the Council, this rental seems a bad decision.
“The lease is for 625,000 dollars, per year which runs at approximately $52,084 dollars per month. This is prime real estate land, and this price set by the Town Clerk is ridiculous. It seems as if he has given a gift to the tenant,” Kennard concluded.
He also recorded as suspicious the manner by which Quick Shipping paid its lease.
“Two official receipts were presented but the first is very questionable… Mr [Paul] Sandy [Managing Director of Quick Shipping Inc] said that his son took $625,000 to pay City Hall… I can’t imagine a person walking with that large amount. Should that not have been paid by cheque?” Kennard questioned during his handing over of the report.
Other leases granted by King were called into question and Kennard recommended that the State Asset Recovery Agency be engaged.
“It appeared from documents seen by the COI which were provided by the City Treasurer (ag), that the Town Clerk was reckless, in granting leases to several persons for below fair market prices. In some cases, he rented these lands for no fees to businessmen who can afford. This to my mind is a fundamental breach of his duty of care for the Council, particularly given the state of the Council’s finances. This further warrants investigation and I believe the auditors of the State Assets Recovery Agency should be called in to probe further the issuing of leases and contracts to ascertain whether the Town Clerk and other officers are benefiting from perquisite of office,” the report noted.
