Court hears Nat’l Assembly approved $10M for GMC building rehabilitation

Apr 06, 2017 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

Ten million dollars was approved by the National Assembly in 2010 to carry out rehabilitation works on the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) office building situated at Robb and Alexander Streets, Georgetown.

Nizam Hassan

This is according to Owen Nestor, an Accountant at GMC, who was called to testify when the trial of Nizam Hassan, former General Manager at GMC and Felecia De Souza-Madramootoo continued yesterday before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan.
It is alleged that between October 28, 2010 and April 25, 2012 the two conspired to continuously approve payments which were made to contractor of Constantine Engineering and Construction Services Limited, Trinidad and Tobago, for works that were incompetently and incorrectly done with inferior materials to rehabilitate the GMC building; knowing that such works should not have been approved.
They have both pleaded not guilty to the charge and were each released on $250,000 bail with instructions to report to the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU).
According to Nestor, in 2010 $10M was included in the GMC budget to facilitate rehabilitation works on the building. The accountant disclosed that the budget was then submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture. Nestor said that the Agriculture Ministry would hold meetings to review the budget before dispatching it to the Ministry of Finance for approval.
In his presence, during a meeting, Nestor stated that no alterations were made to the project.
Guided by Police Prosecutor Deniro Jones, the witness told the court that the budget was approved by the National Assembly the following year to undertake the rehabilitation works.
The monies were deposited into the GMC checking account held at Republic Bank, the witness added.
Nestor related that he informed Hassan that the budget had been approved and told him that based on the contract, the monies might not be sufficient to undertake the works.
The accountant recalled that Hassan related to him that he also made the same observation and that they would have to utilize savings for which he would talk with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture about getting approval.
Constantine Engineering and Construction Services Limited, Nestor revealed, was awarded the contract to carry out the rehabilitation. He added that Hanniel Madramootoo was the project engineer who was tasked with supervising

Felecia De Souza-Madramootoo

the works.
When asked by Prosecutor Jones to outline his roles as an accountant, the witness said, “Basically to overlook the financial operation of the Guyana Marketing Corporation, preparation of financial statements, and preparation of budget…”
Nestor disclosed that his department has three other staff, including a senior accounts clerk who is responsible for the preparation of payroll and financial statements among other roles; an accounts clerk who is tasked with preparing cheques for payments, managing the petty cash system, and a stock clerk who receives goods from suppliers for the Guyana Shop and enters stock into the accounts system.
Nestor told the prosecutor that he is familiar with the term “major project”.
In explaining this, he told the court that it is a term used to prepare contracts for suppliers.
“Once the corporation decides to do a project, management will seek technical support from the Ministry of Agriculture to assist in preparing the appropriate contract. Once we get that approval from the Ministry of Finance for engineering assistance, that engineer will provide a contract based on what is the project.”
Nestor recalled that Afraz Ali was the project manager for Constantine Engineering and Construction Services Limited and that he would usually come to uplift cheques on behalf of the company.
Yesterday, Police Sergeant Salish Roopnarine, a detective attached to the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU), testified to interviewing Ali on July 15, 2016 at SOCU office, Camp Road, Georgetown. The police witness told the court that Ali showed him a cellular phone containing several emails allegedly sent to him by Nizam Ramkissoon, who was a contractor for the construction of the GMC building. The emails, Sergeant Roopnarine recalled, were printed out and handed over to Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sydney James, who is also the head of SOCU.

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