T&T contractor, co-accused in GMC fraud gets January trial date

Oct 27, 2018 News

Almost five months after Hanniel Madramootoo, the Director of Constantine Engineering and Construction Service Limited, Trinidad and Tobago, was arrested at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport over an alleged fraud at the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), he is yet to go on trial.
Charged along with him is Nizam Ramkissoon, who is also said to be a director at the firm.
The charge against them alleges that between October 28, 2010 and April 25, 2012, they conspired with Phillip Madramootoo, the brother of Hanniel, to continuously approve payments to the contractor of the engineering firm for works that were incompetently and incorrectly done with inferior materials to rehabilitate the GMC building at Robb and Alexander Streets, Bourda, Georgetown; knowing that such works should not have been approved.
Madramootoo, 35, who resides locally at Lot 224 Third Street, Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, and a former engineer attached to the Ministry of Agriculture, is out on $500,000 bail. When the men returned before Senior Magistrate Fabayo Azore yesterday, she informed them that their trial will begin on January 8, 2019.
The Magistrate cited her heavy case load for fixing the date in the New Year. The men, will however, return to court on November 9, to collect statements.
They are being represented by Attorneys-at-Law Glen Hanoman and Marcel Babb.
The charges against them come more than a year after the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU), an arm of the Guyana Police Force, filed similar charges against Hanniel Madramootoo’s wife, Felecia De Souza-Madramootoo, and former General Manager at GMC, Nizam Hassan.
However, last year, those charges were dismissed against the two by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan who cited that a majority of the prosecution’s witnesses were discredited and in some instances were found to be lying under oath.
Charges were recommended against them and several other persons after SOCU completed its report into the investigations of the multi-million-dollar construction of the GMC office building. A forensic audit report submitted in 2015 by auditor, Saykar Boodhoo, flagged the construction, citing several worrying things at GMC, an agency of the Ministry of Agriculture.
The forensic audit report was sent to Cabinet where it was decided that the findings of the report were serious enough to warrant a deeper investigation into not only the construction of the building but also into the handling of hundreds of millions of dollars of fertilizers.
According to Government sources, investigations found the principals of the contracting company are close relatives of the engineer. Investigators reportedly also found that one of the defendants, who was assigned to oversee the project, allegedly used a family member to conduct transactions at the Tender Board relating to the project.

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