The trial of former members of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) who are accused of fraudulent omission continued before city Magistrate Leron Daly on Thursday, when Magistrate Daly gave the Prosecution until March 12 to produce the forensic reports substantiating these allegations.
These reports have formed the basis on which the charges were laid via the work of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).
In May last year, People’s Progressive Party Members of Parliament Dharamkumar Seeraj and Nigel Dharamlall; former Deputy General Manager of GRDB, Ricky Ramraj; former General Manager of the GRDB, Jagnarine Singh; former GRDB Board member Badrie Persaud; and former Deputy Permanent Secretary (Finance) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Prema Roopnarine, were all
Attorney-at-Law Anil Nandlall
released on bail by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan on a string of charges.
According to attorney for the accused persons, Anil Nandlall, the delay in producing the said reports is hindering the defence’s ability to properly cross-examine witnesses. He made this comment prior to the Magistrate adjourning the matter to March 12.
“Six consecutive times they have refused to produce this report. Instead, on the last occasion, and in our absence, they produced the author of the report. We never asked for the author of the report to be produced, we can’t, say, sensibly cross-examine the author of the report without reading the report, so we need the report,” the attorney said on Thursday.
He called on the Prosecution to fully disclose materials that the defence requires, as long as those materials are in their possession.
Nandlall later questioned the motivation behind the charges. “Why is the prosecution not presenting this report? Was it the report was altered or fabricated to lay the basis for the institution of fabricated charges? These are fundamental questions we have to ask. We have suspected from the beginning that these charges are witch-hunting exercises, and they were all concocted and fabricated for political persecution,” he stressed.
The six former GRDB members were charged one day after they had been summoned by SOCU for questioning in relation to the operations of the GRDB between the years 2011 and 2015. The first charge alleged that, in 2011, the defendants omitted to enter some $52 million in the GRDB ledger; while the second charge stated that the then board members had omitted to enter a sum of $77.3 million into the said ledger. Other charges state that between the years 2014 and 2015, the sums of $130 million, $9.7 million and $145 million were respectively omitted from the GRDB register.
