Town Clerk scraps leave request as auditors take aim at City Hall

Mar 08, 2018 News

Town Clerk, Royston King

Town Clerk Royston King has rescinded his request for leave following announced plans by the Auditor General’s office to conduct a forensic audit of the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown (M&CC).
King who is facing a no confidence motion filed by Alliance for Change, (AFC) Councillor, Sherod Duncan, said that he decided to stay on the job, given the circumstances.
“Given all that has been happening; given all the unfolding events, perhaps it would be more responsible for me to stay on a bit longer,” King told Kaieteur News.
Prior to Auditor General Deodat Sharma’s pronouncement of a forensic audit, the Town Clerk had applied for 42 days leave, starting next month. The forensic audit of the city will look into millions of dollars in funds provided by Central Government, dating as far back as 2015.
The AG’s decision came when city treasurer, Ron McCalmont, who is legally the financial reporting officer for the council, was absent from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting held at Parliament Buildings on February 19.
The PAC noted that state auditors have not received vouchers, statements of expenditure or any piece of document that can verify that City Hall spent $173.5M.
This amount included Kitty Market, $60M; constabulary training school, $23.9M; city engineer’s building, $13.5M; constabulary headquarters, $12.9M; Albouystown clinic, $21.5M; and office equipment and furniture, $42.1M.
Questions have been raised about the $300M allotted for the Georgetown restoration programme in 2015. Some $6.2M was expended to purchase a double cab pick-up for the city police; $52.1M for debushing Le Repentir Cemetery and $241.6M for the restoration of Georgetown.
Several payment vouchers were examined and discrepancies observed.
Auditors found 167 instances totalling $159.9M where there was no evidence of the payment vouchers.
There were instances where approval by the city treasurer was not seen on 140 payment vouchers totalling $143.7M; no evidence of the city’s financial committee approving 48 payments totalling $48.4M; no evidence of receipt or payee acknowledgement for a payment of $750,000 to a contractor and the basis of award of several contracts for the weeding of parapets, desilting of drains and cutting down of trees.
Duncan in his motion listed a number of issues and accused the Town Clerk of dereliction of duty.
Among other things, the Town Clerk is accused of awarding contracts without following the procurement rules, approving the highly controversial parking meter contract with overseas-based Smart City Solutions, (SCS), and leasing the Bel Air Park and the Farnum playgrounds without the approval of the Council.
The motion was seconded by AFC Councillor and Deputy Mayor, Lionel Jaikarran. The motion is expected to be on the M&CC agenda by the next statutory meeting set for March 12.

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