MINISTER of Local Government and Regional Development Mr. Kellawan Lall said yesterday that Commissioner of the Inquiry set up to investigate the proceedings at City Hall, Mr. Keith Burrowes, made one request upon submitting the final report to him.

Speaking at the Ministry, Fort Street, Kingston, Minister Lall said Burrowes requested that the Police be called in to investigate the recent multi-million dollar fraud that was unearthed at the municipality.

The Minister said he subsequently wrote to Minister of Home Affairs Mr. Clement Rohee for assistance in the matter.

According to Minister Lall, Burrowes did systemic checks which revealed that the computer systems at the municipality are susceptible to corruption.

He said once this has been discovered, it means that this fraud may not be the only one.

When contacted yesterday, Town Clerk (Ag) Ms. Yonnette Pluck said she had not received any reports from the Treasury Department that the Police were called in.

The Guyana Local Government Officers Union (GLGOU), at a press conference recently, had charged that it is likely that “high authority” at City Hall made changes in the rates and taxes software programme at City Hall so that the scam could have been pulled off.

President of the GLGOU , Mr. Andrew Garnett, said he was not at liberty to name the high ranking official(s) who gave the permission, but he maintained that the cashiers did not have the level of access to make the alterations.

At a recent press conference at City Hall, Mayor Hamilton Green inferred that members of the junior staff were culpable, but that his authority and that of the City Council, were constrained, despite his having made several recommendations for punitive action to be taken against those committing misdemeanours.

However, serious questions have arisen as to the real perpetrators of the scam that has been recently discovered as a result of a private legal matter which involved the repayment of disbursements by a third party to City Hall’s coffers. In this matter it seemed that payments of over three million dollars were not reflected in the records of the Treasury Department.

The Mayor is inferring that it is members of staff who are implicated in the recently-discovered fraud, while the GLGOU is refuting this, contending that junior staff members are being made scapegoats for the culpability of authority figures who are attempting to cover their tracks.

In an invited comment, Commissioner Burrowes said that throughout the investigations conducted by the Commission, he has been conferring with the unions, and has personally met with Mr. Garnett several times.

He said his opinion is that both Mr. Garnett and his union are intent on having the truth exposed – whatever that truth may be.

“I met with Mr. Garnett about two or three times recently and what I have found is that both he and his union are very, very keen to get to the bottom of this matter,” Burrowes said.

“They are not seeking to protect anybody, but are very supportive of the investigation and seeking to let the chips fall where they may,” the Commissioner concluded.