Town Clerk Royston King fired

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 January 2019, 8:41 by Writer

Flashback: Town Clerk, Royston King engages the press outside City Hall.

The Town Clerk of Georgetown, Royston King, has been fired Wednesday after refusing to respond to questions from the Local Government Commission, emerging from the recent independent Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the City’s operations, sources said.

After the CoI conducted by Retired Chancellor of the Judiciary Charles Kennard uncovered several alleged misconduct, including the lease of land that did not belong to the Council, the Local Government Commission summoned King to respond to a number of allegations.

However, Commission sources said King refused to respond to any of the questions that were posed to him as part of a process that was aimed at giving him a fair hearing. He was then fired on Wednesday. The CoI had recommended that King be cited for “gross misconduct, abuse of office, recklessness, dishonesty, conspiracy and misappropriation of funds”.

The CoI also heard that, as Town Clerk, King had allegedly removed vendors from the Stabroek Market Square, and Robb and Alexander Streets areas without the Council’s knowledge or approval. The Inquiry revealed that under King’s administrative stewardship, for several months City Hall had not paid staff on time on top of owing the Guyana Revenue Authority income tax and the National Insurance Scheme for social security that had been deducted from salaries. Also, a number of pensioners told the Inquiry that they had not been receiving their benefits.

Before King had begun his testimony, his Attorney-at-Law Maxwell Edwards had unsuccessfully challenged the legality of the Commission of Inquiry.

King’s name had also been called in connection with the now stalled controversial metered parking project which had sparked weekly protests by mainly the business community.

King was axed after working with the municipal administration for at least 25 years, first as an environmental health officer and later the Public Relations Officer. He had succeeded then Town Clerk, Carol Sooba after a Council no-confidence motion had been passed against her during the mayoralty of Hamilton Green.