Town Clerk fails to justify lease of Govt. reserve

Dec 09, 2018 News

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Embattled Town Clerk, Royston King, has not provided a promised response to the Commission of Inquiry on the lease of a portion of Government reserve along Aubrey Barker Road, North Ruimveldt, Georgetown.
King when he appeared before the CoI into the management of City Hall, had promised to make a written submission on the deal, which came to light in late October when documents surfaced with payments made directly to him for the property.
The CoI final report notes that King did not provide the information as he promised.
King had admitted knowing the owners of a mining company, who claim to have made payments directly to him to lease the land in question.
Chairman of the CoI, Retired Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Cecil Kennard, had asked King during his appearance if he knew the names Ingrid and Brian Chase. King in his response stated that the names ‘ring a bell.’

Kennard indicated to King that he was inquiring about the matter since a copy of a letter and other supporting documents from the Chases addressed to City Mayor Patricia Chase-Green was sent to the CoI.
“Mr. Chairman, could I ask to perhaps do something in writing to you on that particular matter? I am now briefing myself on that particular issue,” King had stated.
King has 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.
King 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).
A document titled ‘License to Occupy Council Reserve Opposite Lot 1579-1580 Aubrey Barker Road North Ruimveldt – Guyana’ carries King’s signature as Town Clerk.
In July 2015, King was appointed Town Clerk. However, the first line of the lease document, which carries King’s signature as Town Clerk states, ‘that the Licence is made and entered into on this day of 24th July, 2012’.
The agreement appears to have been struck based on a payment of $1.8M, which was made through the city’s treasury department on February 22, 2017.
King, who was sent on administrative leave to facilitate the CoI, has dodged numerous allegations of corrupt dealings involving taxpayer funds.
This latest information spotlights a transaction that started about two years prior to King’s appointment as Town Clerk.
He reportedly accepted over 15 payments in cheques and cash totalling $6.8M from the mining company.
Kaieteur News is in receipt of copies of the cheques and payment vouchers from the mining company, which indicate that King used the NGO, Environmental Community Health Organisation (ECHO), to secure the payments.
Before his appointment as Town Clerk, King identified himself as the Executive Director of ECHO, writing letters to the media and leading protests calling for transparency and accountability in the extractive sector.
The owners of the mining company are contending that they knew and trusted King, who identified himself as the head of ECHO. Further, the owners indicated that King identified himself as the owner of the land, and they entered into an agreement to buy the strip of land for $7M.
The payments for the transactions reportedly started on April 15, 2013, with a cash payment of $200,000 – said to be legal fees.
The payments continued in May 2013 with a Scotiabank cheque from the mining company issued to ECHO in the amount of $300,000.
By the end of November 2013, there were seven subsequent payments by cheque made out directly to ECHO. Among them was a $700,000 transaction and two $500,000 payments.
According to records, the mining company had prepared a cheque dated December 5, 2013 in the name of ECHO.
However, the NGO’s name was scratched from that cheque and replaced by the name ‘Royston King’. The payment voucher indicates that the cheque was paid to ‘Royston King for ECHO’ and bears King’s signature as uplifting the payment.
This was the first time in the transaction that King’s name appears among the cheques.
The company executives have stated that they were told to make the payment in ECHO’s name, but when King became Town Clerk, they were told to make those payments directly to him.
According to company executives, they started work on the land, but were stopped by the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission. The agency has since identified itself as the owner of the property.

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