ACTING Town Clerk Carol Sooba, on Tuesday, reiterated that Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Georgetown Mayor & City Council (M&CC), Royston King was never Town Clerk.

She was responding, in an interview, to comments made by both Mayor Hamilton Green and Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green, who had both stated that King had served in the capacity of Town Clerk.
However, in the continuing controversy embroiling City Hall, Sooba pointed out that there was no consistency in either claim, since the two were saying that King was Town Clerk for three and five days, respectively.
Mayor Green, in a comment solicited by the Guyana Chronicle, agreed that the issue is a contentious one and not simply the tactics of someone trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Green was asked about the circulated letters surrounding the illegitimacy of King’s signature to the waiver, which was done some 12 days before the announcement of the latter’s appointment without the approval of the minister.
The Mayor responded: “I haven’t examined those papers.” He contended that Beacon Foundation falls within the category of not-for-profit organisations and thus it would have qualified for municipal exemption.

NOT TRUE

Meanwhile, Sooba, interviewed by this newspaper, maintained that, although Green and Chase-Green both insisted that the PRO had served as Town Clerk, it was not true.
Sooba said there had been some history of contention between the M&CC and Beacon, which, in her view, did not operate as a non-profit organisation, with regard to tax exemptions.
She stated, too, that the letter issued by King was unstamped so, even if he had held the office, it would have been null and void.
Mayor Green was also quoted as saying that Sooba is a psychiatric case, merely looking to steer away attention from some misappropriations on the part of the now Acting Town Clerk.
Asked about possible sanctions against King, Sooba answered: “I do not want to insinuate. It is not for me to do that. It is at a level beyond the Town Clerk.”
She lamented that, up to the time of the interview, King had not approached her but was, instead, being represented by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor who justified his actions.
Minister in the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Mr. Norman Whittaker has since called for the involvement of the Police and the Office of the Auditor General to aid the investigations into alleged fraudulent actions by King, who could not be reached for a response.
By Derwayne Wills