Criminal charges recommended against top City Hall officials -COI to hand over findings next week

Nov 30, 2018 News

A report by a Commission of Inquiry into alleged mismanagement by the Georgetown Mayor and City Council is likely to be completed next week. Chief among the recommendations is that some City Hall officials be criminally charged.
This is because evidence seen by the Commission seems to suggest that certain high officials misused sums in the performance of their duties, a source told Kaieteur News yesterday.
Kaieteur News understands that this recommendation, among others, is contained in a draft report that has been prepared by the Commission, which is chaired by Retired Justice Cecil Kennard.

Embattled Town Clerk, Royston King

The final draft is likely to be completed early next week. It will be handed over to the Local Government Commission, (LGC), which ordered the CoI after complaints of mismanagement.
However, the sources were reluctant to name the officials who the Commission will recommend to face charges. Kaieteur News was told that it will be up to the Local Government Commission, which is headed by Mortimer Mingo, to act on the recommendations.
Mingo had told Kaieteur News that mismanagement and corruption were at the top of the agenda of the Commission of Inquiry, (COI) into the operations at City Hall.
He had said that the Commission had received numerous complaints of corruption at City Hall for several months. These included complaints against Town Clerk, Royston King, for mismanagement of funds, and abuse of his authority.
“There are complaints about contracts being awarded to friends and family, that procurement rules being bypassed, failure to remit to the Credit Union contributions deducted from workers’ salaries in keeping with financial regulations and so on,” Mingo had said.
Royston King was sent on leave to facilitate the investigation.
King and Georgetown Mayor Patricia Chase-Green were grilled repeatedly about the complaints about corruption. Several individuals also testified against King and others.
Among other things, King is said to have been implicated in a highly suspicious deal where he reportedly collected $6.8M from Brian and Ingrid Chase Mining and Trucking for the sale of lands identified as Government reserve.
He is accused of diverting the monies from the land deal through his Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) and then attempting to cover his tracks by issuing a backdated lease for the property when he became Town Clerk.
The land is located along Aubrey Barker Road, North Ruimveldt.
Payment started in 2013 while King was serving as the Public Relations Officer of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC).