RE: chatbot is not saying the correct time

The local is not the timezone, it just affects how the date is printed.

To set the timezone of the date use the "timezone" attribute set to the GMT hour offset.

<date format="%I: %p" timezone="+2" locale="en_US"/>

You can also use Self to print a date, even from AIML,

<template>The local time is: <self>Date.setTimeZone(Date.time(), "EST")</self></template>