Due to lack of evidence, Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan on Friday dismissed the case against former General Manager of the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), Nizam Hassan and his co-accused Felicia De’Souza-Madramootoo, who is the wife of an engineer attached to the Agriculture Ministry. Thus far, a total of 34 witnesses were called by the prosecution to support the allegations of fraud against the duo.
On November 7, 2016, the plethora of forensic audits that had been ordered by Head of State David Granger had claimed Hassan as its first victim.
The former General Manager of the New Guyana Marketing Corporation and his co-accused, Felicia De’Souza-Madramootoo, were slapped with what has been described as a ‘multimillion-dollar’ fraud.
De’Souza-Madramootoo’s husband, Hanniel Madramootoo – who is a project engineer within the Agriculture Ministry – his brother Philip Madramootoo and friend Nizam Ramkisson – both Directors of Constantine Engineering and Construction Limited of Trinidad and Tobago – were also jointly charged.
However, only Hassan and the female co-conspirator appeared in court at the time and arrest warrants were issued for the others – who were said to be in Trinidad and Tobago.
Hassan and De’Souza-Madramootoo were charged with intent to defraud together with three others by continuously approving payments for substandard and faulty works during the rehabilitation of the Guyana Marketing Corporation building at Robb and Alexander Streets, Georgetown.
The duo was not required to plead to the indictable charge.
During the course of the audit into the operations of GMC, it was found that based on the selection of three vouchers related to the construction of the GMC’s office building for testing, that incorrect building materials were used.
Additional auditing procedures were deemed necessary and a request was made to have all payment vouchers made available for further testing.
The Auditors said it was communicated by Owen Nestor, GMC’s accountant, that none of the other payment vouchers related to the construction of the GMC’s office building could be found.
It was also communicated by Nestor that Hassan may have been the last person who requested all of the payment vouchers of the construction.
The accountants had recommended that a determination be made as to establish what level of disciplinary actions should be taken and that the Board of Directors should instruct GMC’s management to make every effort to locate the missing vouchers.
Nestor, in reporting on his findings to the Finance Ministry, had complained that the process was “deliberately frustrated by the non-response and non-commitment extended by Mr Nizam Hassan, GMC’s General Manager and the lack of commitment by GMC’s Accounting department’s staff.” It was found that many vouchers and back-ups were not provided, either on a timely basis or not at all. “My conclusion is that the accounting practice at GMC shows that the General Manager and the Accountant did not provide any meaningful fiduciary responsibility when any payment originated from the Agriculture Minister or the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture. In other words, GMC’s General Manager and the Accountant acted more like rubber stamps when payments dealt with transactions originating from the Ministry of Agriculture,” the Auditor declared.
