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City Hall owes KN, other media houses – M&CC PR Dept.
“I am embarrassed by this situation. I have to face Kaieteur News’ Advertising Department. The Manager is so kind to City Hall. In fact, City Hall is indebted to most of our local news agencies for advertisements and radio. I have been saying this since 2004.” – PRO Royston King
It appears Town Clerk (Ag.) Carol Sooba is disconnected from the operations of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) since the municipality’s indebtedness to Kaieteur News has been confirmed by its Public Relations Department.
Royston King, Public Relations Officer of M&CC during an interview with this publication, yesterday, said he was surprised that Sooba denied knowledge that City Hall owes Kaieteur News at a press conference last Friday.
M&CC Public Relations Officer, Royston King
According to King, in September 2012, Kaieteur News wrote a reminder to Chairman of the Finance Committee Junior Garrett, and carbon-copied it to the Town Clerk, of the outstanding payments.
King said despite the Council owing Kaieteur News $7.1M for the placement of advertisements since 2007, the entity never turned down the advertisements. He added, “The records of those transactions ought to be with the City Treasurer’s Department, if not, City Hall is in serious trouble.”
King said prior to City Hall suing Publisher of Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall for $5.6M last week, no one engaged him (King), even though the Public Relations Division usually interacts with media houses on a daily basis.
Clarifying that he is neither anti-Town Clerk nor pro-Kaieteur News, King said he wants to be fair to the media house since “Kaieteur News is not wicked and misleading the public in relation to the indebtedness of City Hall”.
He confirmed that no one within the Town Clerk’s Office took the time to research and to ascertain the facts about the accounts. He believes the proper thing would have been for the administration to contact the Public Relations Department on the issue.
“I am embarrassed by this situation. I have to face Kaieteur News’ Advertising Department. The Manager is so kind to City Hall. In fact, City Hall is indebted to most of our local news agencies for advertisements and radio. I have been saying this since 2004,” he said.
King said while Kaieteur News allows the Council to place advertisements without advance payment, other media houses are not giving credit. In fact, City Hall has to pay in advance for the advertisements and air time.
Sooba had said Lall, Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram and Mayor Hamilton Green’s wife, Dr. Jennifer Basdeo, are among persons/entities being sued as part of a debt recovery campaign. However, a source at City Hall said that the action is part of a smear campaign in an effort to tarnish the reputations of those not supportive of Government.
Lall and Ram have been exposing corruption and conflict of interest between Government Officials and their friends whilst Mayor Green is a member of Opposition.
Town Clerk (Ag.) Carol Sooba
Sooba confirmed that her campaign is selective by admitting that a taxpayer owes the Council $64M and no legal action has been taken against that individual. She also admitted that $5M and $20M cannot help City Hall, yet she ignores the taxpayer owing a significantly larger amount.
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