MR. EDITOR, you have outdone yourself in the article, which appeared in the Guyana Chronicle: “Glenn Lall and wife sued for $M in rates and taxes “Mayor a stumbling block”, issue of Thursday, September 18, 2014, at Page 2. 

Had it not been for our commitment to disseminate accurate information to our stakeholders, we would have ignored this article. It is so riddled with inaccuracies that, we can only describe it as a fabrication; it does not present the facts on the issues it seeks to report to the public. Frankly, we are puzzled that the Guyana Chronicle, the state-owed newspaper, could actually attempt to attack the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the City of Georgetown.

No good can come from this effort; no benefits to citizens. We are aware of the spin put on information, on events, and situations at City Hall. We are also aware that, truth is the first casualty.
However, we wish to comment on two of the issues raised in your article.
We begin with the Glenn Lall rates and taxes issue. We have already said in the media and elsewhere that, this council owes Kaieteur News millions for advertisements and other works published for the municipality.
And yes, there was an arrangement to do an exchange of cheques, by the council and Kaieteur News, to settle the debt. The late Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the Council Finance Committee, Mr. Robert Williams as well as previous Town Clerks and City Treasurers were part of that arrangement. It was the view of administration and the council that since the Council owed Kaieteur News more than that Publishing Company owes the municipality and that, at the time, the Council could not afford to pay its debt, that, there be an exchange of cheques. There is nothing sinister or mysterious about that. In fact, we did that in quite a few cases, including GPL, GWI, and others.
Therefore, the Mayor only restated that position taken by council some time ago, to the media; it was not his personal arrangement as the author of that article supposed. It must be said that, Kaieteur News as well as all of our local media agencies has been very kind to this municipality. As it now stands, we have outstanding amounts for many of our news agencies. They have been extremely long-suffering and forbearing with us.

Again, paragraph 7 is totally inaccurate: “This source also revealed that all national events where persons are permitted to vend on City Council property and pay a fee totalling millions of dollars, this money is collected by a committee headed by Hamilton Green and Deputy Mayor Chase-Green. When Town Clerk, Carol Sooba intervened and ensured that these monies were paid into the Council, they declared war on Sooba. “I would like an audit to be done either by the Auditor General or some external auditor into all the monies received over the last five years generated by these national events, Sooba says.”
This is not only untrue; it is malicious. This council is an institution that has been in existence for over a century. It has time-proven policies, protocols, procedures, and systems that will never allow any individual or committee to collect monies from such events without depositing it into the treasury. In fact, the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Councillors do not handle council’s money.
The truth is the committee responsible for such events, at Council, is the Social Development Committee. It is headed by Deputy Mayor, Ms. Patricia Chase-Green. A cursory examination of the records of council would show that all monies ever collected by this committee were at all times paid into the City Treasury. The revenues earned from such events are used to do welfare and other social activities, for employees and other stakeholders, in local neighbourhoods.
It should be noted that Mayor Hamilton Green was never the chairman of or a member of the Social Development Committee. He is never aware of any financial arrangement in which that committee is involved unless it is reported at full statutory meetings. Therefore, to state, as the article did, that the committee is headed by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor is not true, at all.
The contents, tone and sweeping allegations in that article are less than acceptable. The article itself does not confirm to even the basic principles of good journalism. We are disappointed but not surprised by this move by Chronicle to besmirch the character of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. We anticipate that over the next few months similar negative articles will appear about the on-going sorry situation at the Mayor and City Council. However, our position is clear; our commitment has been tested and tried. We, at City Hall, remain secure in the knowledge that citizens know and understand exactly what is happening at the Georgetown Municipality.

ROYSTON KING
Mayor and Councillors, City of Georgetown