British Financial Investigation expert, Dr. Sam Sittlington said the multi-million dollar scam involving the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), is a massive one.Last Friday, the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) raided GRDB’s Kingston Office after a forensic audit into the entity revealed that there were glaring financial irregularities involving the millions of dollars which passed through its account unit from the Petro Caribe Fund under the previous administration. The audit was conducted for the period 2011-2015.
Speaking to reporters on the sideline of an Anti-Corruption, Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Seminar on Wednesday, Dr. Sittlington, who is advising SOCU on the case, said there is evidence that a crime had been committed. “I wouldn’t underestimate the size of this case; it is a massive case,” he said.
Dr. Sittlington explained that although the auditors at Nigel Hinds Financial Services have detailed their findings in the forensic audit report the raid was conducted to acquire the supporting evidence.
“It is a matter of gathering those documents as evidence, because you cannot use the audit as a case in court…Because the audit was produced with the documentation from the board, we had to gather that same documentation as evidence under a legal process,” the British Financial Investigation Expert further explained.
He noted, however, that during SOCU’s operation to extract the required evidence, the employees were very cooperative. “The staff were excellent and very very, compassionate and helped us in our role, knowing that we have a job to do,” he posited.
In addition to the multi-million dollar scam at the GRDB, SOCU has launched investigations into National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) under the previous administration in addition to ‘Pradoville Two’ – the controversial housing scheme.
In the ‘Pradoville Two’ matter, it was found that plots of land were transferred at values that were not reflective of market prices at the time and, the valuations provided were “unusual for the time and location.”
On the other hand, the audit into NICIL revealed that some $257M were spent on the development of the housing project, and the value of land there should have been $82.8M per acre; but the lands were sold for significantly less.
During development of the project, a transmission tower belonging to the National Communications Network (NCN) was removed and relocated by the former People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to facilitate the development of the area.
“Instead of accumulating all the costs associated with the Sparendaam Project — including the market value of the land — in a special account to be applied in arriving at the price to be charged per house lot, NICIL’s Board and Cabinet were complicit in charging the related costs of $257.049M to NCN in the form of equity investment, and to CH&PA in the form of receivables,” a section of the audit report into the entity stated.
However the question that lingers is: “Is SOCU equipped to successfully investigate these white collar crimes?”
According to Dr. Sittlington,SOCU currently has the skills required but the unit is short on human resources. “They do have the skill but they don’t have the man- power and the problem is that there is only a small number of skilled officers,”the British Financial Investigation expert explained.
He said while there is a batch of new officers on board, they all need training. As such, the unit is prioritizing its work. “It is a matter of prioritizing tasks, gathering what they need. And I think one of the good things is that we have in-house lawyers, we have the special prosecutors assisting with cases…so it could be a lot better ,” he posited.
In January, six Attorneys-at-Law were appointed to serve as special prosecutors following Cabinet’s approval. The attorneys are serving as special prosecutors on several high profile cases, including but not limited to, the range of forensic audits conducted by the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Administration when it came into power in May 2015.
They are: Michael Somersall, Hewely Griffith, Lawrence Harris, Patrice Henry, Compton Richardson, and Trenton Lake.