DPP appeals Westford’s $600M larceny case dismissal

Pressure on prosecutorial agencies

The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) announced on Monday that a Notice of Appeal was filed at the Guyana Court of Appeal challenging the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts dismissal of the over $600 million larceny charges against a former Government Minister and her Administrative Assistant.

The intended appeal follows Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman’s August 24, 2018, determination that there was insufficient evidence to prove that former People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Public Service Minister Jennifer Westford and her Administrative Assistant, Margaret Cummings stole $639 million from the Government of Guyana. The two were employed with the then Public Service Ministry. They were both granted bail in the sum of $4.8 million bail after denying 24 charges which stated that they stole the money between October 19, 2011 and April 28, 2015. The prosecution contended that the monies were requested to conduct outreaches in the 10 administrative regions of Guyana.
However, Magistrate Latchman after some two years of hearing evidence from 48 witnesses upheld lead Attorney Dexter Todd’s no-case submission, reasoning that charges against the duo were “bad in law.” The city Magistrate added that there was no evidence to show that the money was taken and not used for its intended purposes.
Latchman also determined that Westford was not a public officer and with respect to Cummings, who was a public officer, the Magistrate said there was insufficient evidence for a conviction.

However, the DPP’s decision to appeal the case comes at a time when the Opposition is claiming that State prosecutorial agencies are being pressured to convict officials of the former Administration. Just recently, Junior Finance Minister Jaipaul Sharma who oversaw several forensic audits strongly criticised the prosecutors and legal experts for instituting the wrong charges. Sharma declared that the charges should be reinstituted against Cummings and Westford.
However, PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo opined that the case was based on “trumped up” charges, saying that Minister Sharma was awarded the forensic audits to different agencies back in 2015, without any public tender. He noted that as a politician, Sharma should allow the technical personnel to do their job and not apply his ministerial influence to pressure them.
“Sharma? He’s the last person to talk about reopening charges. And it’s a politician saying this! Why don’t they allow the technical agencies to assess whether there is really a case to be made and do that? Imagine it’s a politician advocating for this,” Jagdeo noted.