Although Quick Shipping Inc. has receipts showing that it paid the Mayor and City Council (MCC) $625,000 per year for 2016, 2017 and 2018, for its lease of the Sussex Street wharf, Tax Collecting Officer, Kim Forbes says her records only reflect payments received at the MCC for 2017 and 2018.

She says she has no idea why the receipt for 2016 would not be in her records. In an earlier deposition, proprietor of Quick Shipping Inc., Paul Sandy, submitted three receipts into evidence showing that he paid for all three years. Sandy signed a lease with the MCC for the location at Lot 1 Mudflat, Lombard Street in April of 2016.

The issue of the Sussex Street wharf, for which the ownership is being disputed by three entities, came up again, when Forbes appeared before the Commission of Inquiry into City Hall on Monday and was questioned on the correct procedure for the issuing of leases at City Hall.

According to Forbes, though the Sussex Street wharf lease was signed since 2016, it was only when the news broke in the media over the controversy of the property that she was even made aware that MCC had a lease with the business.

“Sir, when it appear in the media, that is the first I gained knowledge of it. I went into my records to see if there was a document pertaining to that and I found the document pertaining to the Sussex Street wharf. On checking the records, yes, we had received payments, two, in the year 2017 and the year 2018. No payment was made in 2016 to the best of my knowledge,” she affirmed.

Forbes works in the Tax Collecting section under the City Treasury Department, which is responsible for the collection of rates and taxes and other revenues, including compliance fees, day care fees, container fees, payments for leases, fees for the name change on property, vending fee, and car park fee.

However, Forbes stressed that her department has nothing to do with the issuing of leases, or the granting of tax amnesty or waivers, which she was also questioned about.
Forbes clarified that it is the Town Clerk’s office that prepares both leases and tax waivers, once directed to do so by the full council, or a sub-committee of the finance committee, respectively.

In the case of a lease, the process begins when an entity makes an application to lease from the MCC.

“What I know is that an application will come in to the council, it would go to the Finance Committee, then it goes to Full Council for approval, then it goes to the Town Clerk’s office to prepare the lease, once it’s approved,” Forbes explained.

Leases issued by the Town Clerk, Royston King, have been called into question, as some appeared to be unilateral decisions made by the town clerk. Aside from the ongoing saga with the Sussex Street wharf, there was also the case of the Bel Air Park playfield, with reports of the Council allegedly attempting to lease the land to a private developer.

There is also the case of the Farnum Community Ground, where Mae’s private school proprietor, Mayfield Rodrigues, maintained that she had a lease to section of a portion of the ground; in this case, King had claimed that the document was an agreement, not a lease.

Her outlining of the process by which tax waivers are granted also called into question a recent revelation that the town clerk had individually met with and promised MCG Investments Inc., the company that owns Giftland Mall, tax waivers.

If someone is interested in a tax waiver, they are to write the town clerk. However, it is the finance sub-committee that makes the final decision, according to Forbes.

The finance sub-committee that deals with tax waivers comprises Chairman of the Finance Committee, Oscar Clarke; the Mayor, Patricia Chase-Green; the Deputy Town Clerk, Sharon Harry-Munroe; and the Internal Auditor, Omadeli Newton.

“They are to write the town clerk, the town clerk forwards the document to the committee, they call in the customer and they have dialogue with the customer. If the customers fit the requirements, they give the customer a full waiver or a percentage, it depends on the criteria that has been met. When that is done, all [sub-committee members’] signature will be fixed to a document that is sent to the Treasurer’s Department for us to process it. All of them have to sign before we can process it,” Forbes explained.

According to Forbes, it is not common practice for any one member of City Council to meet separately outside of Chambers with individuals requesting tax waivers.

However, according to a complaint made by Giftland representative, Paul Hugh, King met with MCG Chairman, Roy Beepat, last year November, and verbally agreed to waiver the company’s rates and taxes for the years 2015 and 2016, including interest and penalties, as well as the interest and penalties for 2017.

Hugh had complained that at that meeting, Beepat was informed that the taxes for 2017 would have been $11,467,500. However, Beepat was later told that following a meeting with the sub-committee, the tax was $25, 263,750 instead.