Royston King sacked

Jan 26, 2019 News

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He clawed his way into one of the most powerful positions at City Hall. Sitting as the Town Clerk, in essence the Chief Executive Officer of the office that runs Georgetown, he then was forced to fight to keep his place.
On Thursday, he was fired by the Local Government Commission (LGC).
It was the rise and fall of a man who started at City Hall, as the Public Relations Officer.
King was the centre of major revelations last year in a Commission of Inquiry, headed by Justice (Ret’d) Cecil Kennard. The hearings riveted the nation.
The findings of the inquiry pointed to significant fraud at City Hall.
The tenure of King had been a rough road for him.
He had come under fire for his defence of the parking meter contract, and a number of land deals, which were highly questionable, to say the least.
He was seen as the focal point of growing anger against a City Hall that was doing little for Georgetown yet sucking hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
The findings of the report were supposed to determine his fate at City Hall and possibly see a police probe into what are supposed to be criminal actions during his tenure.
Sources close to the Local Government Commission confirmed a decision was taken to sack him Wednesday. The letter was delivered Thursday.
The commission is charged with regulating the local government entities, including city and town halls, regional democratic councils and neighbourhood democratic councils. It has authority to hire and fire employees in the organs.
This would be the first major case for the commission.
The report of the inquiry, with recommendations for criminal charges and all, was handed over last year to the LGC, headed by Chairman, Mortimer Mingo.
Several persons were supposed to be called before the LGC to answer the charges in the report. One of them was King.
Kaieteur News was told that a week ago, he appeared before the commission and asked for more time. He was given a letter from the commission granting him until Wednesday.
King was told to respond to the charges in writing.
However, on Wednesday, when he came, the former Town Clerk had no written response. He wanted more time and said that his lawyer was absent.

However, the LGC was having none of it and told King he must answer the charge. He was also told clearly that it was not an inquiry.
King reportedly said that he had nothing to say and asked to be excused.
According to sources, the commission deliberated, in the absence of the Opposition commissioners, and took a decision to fire King.
The inquiry by Kennard last year had found grounds to terminate the embattled Town Clerk and recommended criminal proceedings to be instituted against him.
The explosive findings are contained in the final report from the Commission of Inquiry into the operations of City Hall. In light of the findings, the COI recommends that there be further investigations in the form of a forensic audit to be conducted by the Audit Office of Guyana.
The report calls for officers to be disciplined even as that audit is being conducted.
The senior officers listed included King, who was sent on leave to facilitate the CoI. King is cited for gross misconduct, abuse of office, recklessness, dishonesty, conspiracy, and misappropriation of funds.
Also listed in the report are Acting Town Clerk, Sharon Harry-Munroe who is cited for dereliction of duty and incompetence; Assistant Town Clerk, Sherry Jerrick for dereliction of duty and incompetence; Internal Auditor, Omodele Umojo-Newton for incompetence and conspiracy; Chief Constable, Andrew Foo for dereliction of duty and incompetence; Human Resources Manager, Paulette Braithwaite for incompetence; City Engineer, Colvern Venture for incompetence and dereliction of duty; and Rashid Kelman for conspiracy.
Further, the report noted that City Treasurer, Ron Mc Calmon should proceed on early retirement as he is unwell.
Kennard posited that it would only be fair that the COI recommend a detailed forensic audit be done into all transactions between April 1, 2015, and October 31, 2018.
“I have found that there is prima facie evidence to support skullduggery. Moreover, where there is evidence of such activities, criminal and or civil proceedings should commence forthwith,” Kennard outlined.
As it relates to King, the CoI report stated that while it is ‘the easiest of recommendation to make’, he should be terminated, and criminal charges should be laid against him in respect of his actions.
The report recommends that the State Asset Recovery Agency (SARA) and the Guyana Police Force should lead a joint probe to ascertain the relevant criminal charge(s) to be laid.
According to the report, the Town Clerk and other officers including former Mayor, Patricia Chase-Green, appeared to have committed the tort of misfeasance and should be dealt with in that context.
The CoI found that documents it received indicated that contracts were awarded to friends and associates of key officials of the Council, such as the son of the Mayor, the son of the Chairman of the Finance sub-committee, the friend of the son of the Mayor, Ingrid and Brian Chase, who were embroiled in a land saga with the Town Clerk, and friends of the Town Clerk and the Mayor.
Further, it also appeared from documents seen by the COI, which were provided by the Acting City Treasurer that the Town Clerk was reckless, in granting leases to several persons for below fair market prices.
In some cases, he rented these lands for no fees to businessmen who can afford.
“This to my mind is a fundamental breach of his duty of care for the Council, particularly given the state of the Council’s finances. This further warrants investigation and I believe the auditors of the State Asset Recovery Agency should be called in to probe further, the issuing of leases and contracts to ascertain whether the Town Clerk and other officers are benefiting from perquisite of office,” the CoI report stated.
Kennard stated that it appears that the Town Clerk has been acting beyond the scope of his Terms of Reference (TOR).
“He seemed to be doing the work of the Treasurer, Engineer and HR Manager,” the report found.

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