GOVERNMENT remains adamant that neither Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green nor the City Council as a collective (M&CC) has the power to appoint a Town Clerk, because that power resides in the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development.

As such, Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon, said the recent actions by the Mayor of Georgetown, Hamilton Green, to ignore the Acting Town Clerk, Carol Sooba, and illegally appoint Royston King as Town Clerk, reflect nothing but contempt for Guyanese.

Speaking to reporters on the issue during his usual post-Cabinet press briefing yesterday, Dr. Luncheon said that just this past Tuesday, Mayor Green appointed City Council’s Public Relations Officer, Royston King, as Town Clerk at an extraordinary statutory meeting.

“As his political career appears to be winding down, the mayor seems anxious to recreate sentiments, memories of his political past. His contempt for the sensitivities of Guyanese continues and, indeed as before, it knows no bounds,” Luncheon remarked.

Dr. Luncheon said the mayor and his acolytes put on a show during last Easter Monday, when he was accused of atrocious behaviour. “The mayor is certainly liable for prosecution. Not satisfied with that exhibition, he raised his contempt to new heights in summoning an extraordinary meeting of the council, at which three motions were to be dealt with.”
The motions sought to dispose of the services of the Town Clerk and of Chairman of the Finance Committee, Junior Garrett. “The mayor has no such power; has been told that he has no such power; the mayor knows he has no such power.

“This pathetic display obviously is more evidence of his contempt for Guyanese.”

Meanwhile, the motion seeking to remove the current Town Clerk from that position, moved by City Councillor Hector Stoute, was unanimously approved by the quorum of councillors present at Tuesday’s meeting called by the mayor. And there was a subsequent additional motion moved by Councillor Ranwell Jordan, which was also approved unanimously, proposing that King be appointed as Town Clerk with immediate effect.

King faces an allegation of fraudulently misrepresenting the capacity of Town Clerk by signing tax waivers to the sum of some $36M to the Beacon Foundation, prompting the Local Government Minister to call on the Guyana Police Force and the Office of the Auditor General to investigate those waivers.

This matter is still before the investigative entities.

In keeping with Article 118(1) of the Municipal and District Councils Act, Chapter 28:01, which reads to the effect that the power to appoint persons to hold or act in any local government office, and the power to remove any such local government officer from office shall be vested in the Local Government Commission; the Act further provides, in Article 119(1), that any such decision taken by the Commission must be approved by the powers duly vested in the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development.

In the absence of the Local Government Commission, which is to be constituted by the Prime Minister, the powers of the Commission are conferred upon the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development.

The dispute over the Town Clerk’s appointment has spanned the tenure of three successive Local Government Ministers: Mr. Kellawan Lall, Mr. Ganga Persaud and Mr. Norman Whittaker.