City Hall does not owe Kaieteur News any money - Town Clerk - Kaieteur News article “misleading” and “an act of wickedness
Written by Gabreila Patram, Sunday, 13 October 2013 22:05, Source - Guyana Chronicle
ACTING Town Clerk of Georgetown, Ms. Carol Sooba has rejected a claim by Kaieteur News that City Hall owes the newspaper 7.1M.
Ms. Carol Sooba
Speaking at a press conference last Friday Ms. Sooba said she has been acting in the capacity as Town Clerk for the past 14 months, and so has City Treasurer Ron McCalmon, and they are unaware that City Hall owes the Lalls any money.
Publisher of Kaieteur News, Glen Lall was quoted as saying that the City Council owes Kaieteur News $7.1 million dollars but is taking him to court for $6.5M.
Ms. Sooba explained that the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has duly sent the required notices, and she was advised that M&CC has been sending the Lalls notices for several years However, no request was made to her office to pay the Lalls any money, and the Council has no record of being indebted to Mr. and Mrs. Lall.
Moreover, both the Town Clerk and City Treasurer are readily accessible and when the notices were served the Lalls had seven days within which to come to the Council to make their claim.
Ms. Sooba added that she considers the Kaiteur News article “misleading” and “an act of wickedness.” She noted that if Glen Lall had the city at heart or cared about the health of the city and the work the City Council has to do he would have paid his debt.
Mayor Hamilton Green
Additionally, she noted that Georgetown’s Mayor Hamilton Green, who is not legally in charge of the financial aspects or actions of the Council, has no legal authority to engage any debtor in any arrangement.
Sooba contended that if Lall had any discussion with Mayor Green it should have been brought to the attention of the Town Clerk, the Council and the City Treasurer.
She said on reading the article she believes the M&CC and the Lalls should have been exchanging cheques to mutually liquidate the outstanding liabilities, but neither she nor the Council is aware of any liability to the Lalls and there is also no record of it.
She said she is satisfied to leave the matter in the capable hands of the legal department and the lawyers that are presently handling the cases on behalf of the Council.
Glen Lall
She also disclosed that the Alliance For Change (AFC) member Christopher Ram owes the Council millions of dollars for several years. She said she has been associated with the Council for little over 15 years and was dealing with its Debt Recovery Campaign and is aware of the persons and prominent ones who owe the Council money.
She said she was shocked to see the Kaieteur News article take on a political slant which paints her as being ‘close to the government’ and ‘very good friends of the politicians’ because she has no interest in politics.
Ms. Sooba said that one of the pictures printed in the same article is/are of a person(s) that the Council took to court some years ago. That/those matter(s) is/are still pending in the Court of Appeal and the Attorney-at-Law for the case is Raphael Trotman.
City Treasurer Ron McCalmon said he is unaware that the Council is indebted to the Lalls and also does not know of the existence of a payment plan involving the newspaper. The Treasury Department has engaged several persons in regard to their outstanding debts to the City, and the list has been sent to the Town Clerk and also forward to the various lawyers.
McCalmon disclosed that as at December 2012 the total amount owed by various persons amounted to $500M and between 65% and 75% of that amount is owed by the commercial sector.
Sooba highlighted that as Acting Town Clerk she would not allow any effort on behalf of the Council to be thwarted in its debt recovery drive. She said it has been happening for many years and it is disgraceful, as the City needs its money, and she has no apologies to offer on this issue.
She promised that she and the council “will do what they have to do.”
She informed the media that she has been subjected to all sorts of insults from Mayor Green in her recent efforts to get certain businesses to pay their taxes, especially those owned by Mayor Green’s wife. She said Green is currently the occupier of that property in question and the public ought to be aware that he is not paying the taxes for that property.
She said she would not allow him or anyone else to owe City Hall money. People ought to honour their statutory obligations and be honest in their dealings, she said.
She is reportedly appalled at the Mayor’s comments in relation to the Kaieteur News article, in which he is reported to have said he is aware that there should have been some exchange of cheques. She was disappointed at the Mayor for dragging the Council and the Town Clerk into that ‘disgusting’ piece of article.
She said she called him shortly before the press conference and asked him to send all the documents in his possession pertaining to this issue, but all he said was “Alright! Alright!” and hanged up the phone.
This publication obtained a copy of the summary of the matters filed by Attorney-at-Law Sandil Kissoon of the law firm ‘Kissoon & Kissoon.’ The indebted persons and the outstanding amounts they owe are as follows:
Christopher Ram, (Sublot ‘B’ of Lot 158 Waterloo Street, North Cummingsburg, and Sublots ‘C’ and ‘D’ of Lot 157 Waterloo Street, North Cummingsburg, Georgetown) - a total of $11,434,422
Wraylite Engineering Company Ltd. (for property at Lot 1866 North Ruimveldt, Festival City, Georgetown) the sum of $21,960,397
Clinton Rollox (for property at Lot 80/56 Werk-en-Rust, Georgetown) - $2,340,583
Glenn Lall & Bhena Lall (for Lot 24, Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown) – the sum of $5,660,142
Wade Beckles (for property at Lot 84 Robb Street, Lacytown, Georgetown) - the sum of $6,862,342
Azamally & Sons Ltd (Lot 1/11 Werk-en-Rust, Georgetown) – the sum of $7,676,555
Over the years, City Council has been trying all means to have delinquent citizens pay what they owe for rates and taxes.
Rates are the major source of funding for the council. Its receipt enables the M&CC to pay to execute its work programme.
Systems have been put in place over the years to assist recalcitrant persons to pay their dues through a payment plan. As such, the debt recovery staff have been going out to encourage citizens to come in to discuss how to liquidate what they owe, but for some reason or the other the prominent persons in society have decided not to honour their statutory obligations.
The M&CC therefore has no alternative available to it other than to bring those persons before the court to force them to honour their obligations.
Ms. Sooba said she has to utilise the warrant process. According to the Municipal and Council Act Chapter 28:01, Section 317, Subsection 1 provides, where a person is indebted to the council for more than three months, the Town Clerk has the authority to take the necessary legal action to recover the monies, and report to the council what action was taken.
That section authorises the Town Clerk, whoever that person may be, to take the necessary legal action, which Sooba is currently doing.
The action that was taken was not political contrary to what has been reported in some sections of the media, , Sooba stressed, adding that she cannot continue to plead with people, but has to do what she has to do because the Council needs its money.
The Town Clerk said she would continue to discharge her duties without fear, favour or ill-will in order to make sure that the people who owe the council pay what is due.
The cases involving the Lalls and Christopher Ram are set for hearing in Court 8 on October 24, 2013.