City Hall forensic audit still incomplete Local Gov’t Commission awaits findings

Jul 16, 2019 News

The Local Government Commission (LGC) is awaiting the findings of a forensic audit before it can determine the course of action which will be taken against officers of the Georgetown Mayor and City Councillors (M&CC).

Andrew Garnett

This is according to Deputy Chairman of the LGC, Andrew Garnett. Garnett, was at the time, responding to queries about the status of the recommendations made by the Commission of Inquiry, (CoI) into the operations of City Hall.
More than six months have gone by since the CoI recommendations were handed to the LGC.
The CoI headed by retired Justice Cecil Kennard had recommended disciplinary action for several senior officers of the municipality including former Town Clerk Royston King.
King is cited for gross misconduct, abuse of office, recklessness, dishonesty, conspiracy, and misappropriation of funds.
He was eventually dismissed by the LGC.
However, while months have passed since LGC took any decisive action with regard to the other recommendations, Garnett explained that the Commission is awaiting the outcome of the forensic audit before it makes any move.
“You would appreciate that these matters take time and we want to ensure as the oversight body that we have a comprehensive view of the matters before taking any definite action.”
“In the case of the Town Clerk, we acted on recommendations because there was, in our opinion sufficient evidence to warrant his dismissal, the other officers were cited for dereliction of duty.
“So we have to be careful that our action is not premature—or a case where we take administrative action when more serious penalties are warranted.”
Further, the Deputy Chairman noted that the Commission had written to City Hall to ensure that municipality complied with all request of the auditors.
“As you are aware, the auditors had encountered some difficulty getting certain information from the Council. We had written the council about it.
So now the auditors are continuing their work which we hope will conclude soon.
With regard to the officers, Garnett said, the LGC has since written to them as well.
“They have responded in the form of lawyers’ letters and as soon as the investigation wraps up, we will take it from there. It is a wide sweeping investigation and we want to ensure that we have covered all bases before making any determination,” Garnett added.
Under the Ministry of Communities, the LGC is established by the Constitution, to oversee, monitor, investigate, examine and take disciplinary actions, where necessary, on officers of some 27 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) and ten municipalities.
At present the Commission is looking at recommendations as it relates to the action to be taken against 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 COI report recommended that City Treasurer, Ron Mc Calmont, should proceed on early retirement, as he is unwell.

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