Deputy Mayor calls in Auditor General on Town Clerk Sooba

The Deputy Mayor of Georgetown has written to the Auditor General requesting that an investigation be launched into the alleged misappropriation of funds belonging to the Georgetown City Council by Town Clerk Carol Sooba.

In the letter to the Auditor General, Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green pointed out the payment of $500,000 in legal fees to Attorney Roysdale Forde for professional services rendered to the Town Clerk in relation to legal proceedings underway in the High Court by Royston King against the Ministry of Local Government.

The Deputy Mayor in her letter pointed out that the court matter has nothing to do with the Georgetown City Council and the Town Clerk and therefore Ms. Sooba overstepped her authority at the City Council by making herself out to be a party in the matter and hiring a private attorney to represent her in the same matter and then have the council bear the costs for that attorney.

“The matter: Application by Royston King Action #103-M was not filed against the Town Clerk or any officer of the City of Georgetown. The Court did not serve an order on Ms. Sooba to appear in the matter. Therefore she is not a party to the proceedings; she has no locus standi in the matter”, the letter to the Auditor General highlighted.

The Deputy Mayor said she was particularly worried by the development since it comes at a time when the council has evidence that the Town Clerk has been “arbitrary and illegally deducting monies from the meager stipends of city councillors, the city is rotting with garbage in every corner because Ms. Sooba refused to hire trucks and re-engage our solid waste contractors, the cemetery is a public eye sore, and the City Hall building is visibly falling apart”.

The Deputy Mayor said she would like the matter to be treated with urgency and she also believes that there may be other similar transactions.