Other employees received gifts worth $10K while GM got $900K bracelet

Jan 03, 2021 News

Int’l Men’s Day celebration at Harbour Bridge…

General Manager, Rawlston Adams

Kaieteur News – While the General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB), Rawlston Adams, presented himself with a bracelet worth a whopping $897,000, other staffers received gifts worth $10,000.
The occasion was International Men’s Day, in 2019.
Those revelations were made days ago after the special team appointed by the Public Works Minister, Juan Edghill, to investigate an alleged racket at the Garden of Eden asphalt plant, did a little digging.
Gifts were also said to have been purchased for other members of staff to commemorate the day but no details were given to outline what they received.
However, it was stated in the audit report that: “We noted that gifts were also given to all other men within the (Demerara Harbour Bridge) Corporation, to an approximate value of G$10,000 each, to mark the occasion of International Men’s Day.”
Adams had honored himself in a rather unique fashion with the bracelet purchased using funds from the company.
Head of the team, Chateram Ramdihal, while presenting the findings, had stated “We found that the Harbour Bridge went about buying gifts for their staff during International Men’s Day, November of 2019. It was the Board’s request that any gifts purchased must be approved by the Board.”
However, those purchases were not given the stamp of the approval by the Board.
Ramdihal added that: “We came across an alarming gift to the value of $897,000, a bracelet that was purchased for the General Manager and approved by the General Manager.”
He explained that in normal circumstances, approval for such a large purchase comes directly from the Board. If no Board is present, the matter is forwarded to the Public Infrastructure Minister, who was David Patterson at the time.
But Adams apparently bypassed all these levels and presented himself with the gift.
Kaieteur News attempted to make contact with Adams for a comment on the issue. However, his phone was turned off.
However, Adams was quoting in other sections of the media as saying that the Harbour Bridge Board will later issue a statement providing an explanation for the $897,000 purchase.
To date, no explanation had been provided by the Board.