(Guyana Chronicle)GLENN & Bhena Lall have been sued by the Town Clerk of the Mayor and City Council, Carol Sooba for the sum of $ 5,660,142.00 and $60,142 for unpaid rates and taxes for the years 2004 to 2013 in relation to their property at 24 Saffon Street. The case is currently being heard at the Georgetown Magistrates Court.

In a defence seen by this newspaper and filed by attorney at law, Khemraj Ramjattan, the Lalls claim that they had a set off arrangement with the City Council and they are not indebted for the taxes and that they repaid these taxes by publication of advertisements in the Kaieteur News.

However, a source in the accounting department at City Council denies any such arrangement. “There is certainly no document in writing to this effect,” the source disclosed.
Mayor Hamilton Green, however, surprisingly was reported in the Kaieteur News as claiming that he is aware of this mysterious arrangement. The source at City Hall says that perhaps the Mayor had a private arrangement with Kaieteur News but certainly he was not acting on behalf of the Council. “The Mayor is not empowered to enter into any such transactions and I am confused why the Mayor is putting stumbling blocks in the Council’s way as it seeks to collect taxes which would aid significantly in the cleaning up of Georgetown.”
Over the years, Georgetown has been plagued with a series of problems including garbage collection. Mayor Hamilton Green is on record regularly crying out for more money from Central Government.
“This is the height of irresponsibility on the part of the Mayor. He should be assisting the Council in recovering taxes from delinquent property owners, not frustrating the Council,” said the source at City Hall.
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.
The Lalls have been in the spotlight recently with Glenn and Bhena Lall currently under investigation by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) for allegedly evading taxes for two Lexus luxury vehicles to the tune of $100M. The vehicles were bought and imported into Guyana by family friends of the Lalls who benefited from duty free concessions under the remigrant scheme; but since the vehicles came into the country, they were being used and prominently parked in front of the business and residence of Glenn and Bhena Lall.
Moreover, Glenn Lall, the owner of the Guyana National Media Publishing Company, has again been implicated for evading taxes and the GRA this time around is investigating the importation of printing ink packaged as a CARICOM (Caribbean Community) product enjoying duty free concessions under the revised treaty of Chaguramas. Under closer inspection, it was allegedly found that the origin of the inks were from overseas, thereby in breach of the treaty.