Latest update January 20th, 2025 4:00 AM
Departmental shake-up recommended as money goes missing at City Hall
By Zena Henry
Town Clerk (ag) Carol Sooba has recommended a reconfiguration of staffers within the financial arm of the Georgetown City Council following the theft of “not more than $25,000 worth in ‘float’”.
From left: Town Clerk (ag) Carol Sooba, City Treasurer Ron Mc Calman, Chief Constabulary Officer Andrew Foo and two other ranks
The Council Secretary told media operatives that despite the charade, and insinuations by another sector of the Council that it might be a large sum of money that would have gone missing, it was only the small float amount which is usually given to cashiers that was found missing from a staffer’s drawer.
Sooba added that while investigations are ongoing, the theft seems to have been an inside job.
Surrounded by Council officers, specifically heads of the City Constabulary, Sooba explained that the money might have gone missing between late Monday night and early Tuesday morning.
She said that the named cashier arrived at her post in the Treasurer’s department to discover that the locks on her drawer had been tampered with. Further checks, the Council Secretary claimed, proved that the money under the control of the same staffer had been removed.
The missing money was brought to the attention of the City Treasurer, Ron Mc Calman, who later made a report to the security department of the Municipality. An investigation is said to be ongoing.
In the meantime, Sooba said that it might suit the department to reshuffle some staffers and not have them work in such a “sensitive” department. She added that along with the Chief Constable and the Treasurer, work is currently on the way to review the procedural aspects of the department’s operations, while checks are being made to ascertain whether there should be security changes to the existing system.
The Town Clerk (ag) also registered her dissatisfaction toward the manner in which she claimed Mayor Hamilton Green and others having been “blowing the matter out of proportion”.
“Lo and behold there was a press conference held at the Mayor’s office …and the impression that was given (to the public) was that there was this break and enter, and this undisclosed sum of money had gone missing.”
Sooba said the Chief Citizen also reported to the media that the City Constabulary is housed right opposite the department and no one saw when the breakage occurred. This manner of reporting, the Town Clerk continued, has caused phone calls to pour in to the establishment from persons wanting to find out about the break and enter.
Chief Constabulary Officer Andrew Foo also backed the story of the acting Town Clerk, indicating that the missing money is not to the extent as being portrayed by other sections of the Council. He said that he was refuting the information that had been highlighted, since there was no break –in.
He said that it was reported to the Constabulary office that the money was removed from the cashier’s drawer and an investigation was subsequently launched and staffers interviewed. As it relates to internal control, he said there seems to be a need to tighten security within the Treasurer’s department.
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