– to reflect court’s intention

HIGH Court Judge Navindra Singh on Tuesday amended his Order dated June 5, 2018 with respect to the Fixed Date Application requesting a stay on a fraud case brought by the state against former Deputy General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRBD), Madanlall Ramraj.

Notwithstanding the amendment of the order, no stay of proceedings has been granted by the judge. In the June 5, 2018 Order, Justice Singh said, “Unless the magistrate’s order to produce the forensic audit report of the GRDB prepared by Nigel Hinds is produced to the Applicant or his attorney-at-law by June 8, 2018, the prosecution of case jackets number 6976, 6977, 6978, 6980 and 6981 shall be permanently stayed.”

However, on Tuesday, he amended the said Order due to the discovery of a mistake; he changed the last line of it by replacing case jackets 6976, 6977, 6978, 6979, 6980 and 6981 with 6970 of 2017.

As such, the Order of June 5 remains the same, but for the change in the case jacket number, and relates only to one matter: 6970 of 2017.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers represented by Deputy Solicitor-General Deborah Kumar has made it clear that no stay of proceedings has been granted, as it has complied with the order of the court. The said matter is continuing in the magistrate’s court; it was last heard on July 4.

Additionally, the matter was fixed for a decision on Tuesday morning. The Guyana Chronicle has been given to understand that the Attorney-General’s Chambers had filed a Notice of Application to set aside that Order.

As Kumar told the Guyana Chronicle, “Justice Navindra Singh said our application to set aside the whole court order didn’t agree with our application, and that was refused. But what he did, based on discovery of quotes of his own motion, the court would amend or change the Order of Court to reflect the original intention of the court, his intention. All that was changed was the last line of the Order of Court of June 5, 2018.”

She went on to explain that case jacket 6970 is the only case jacket in which Magistrate Leron Daly made her order on for the redacted copy of the forensic audit report.
“It is the same order of court,” Kumar said, “but it only relates to one matter. We have complied with the same order of court, and the matter is still ongoing in the magistrate’s court,” she added.

RUBBISHED CLAIMS
Last month, the Attorney General’s Chambers rubbished claims by Attorney Anil Nandlall for stating that Justice Singh ordered a stay on a fraud case brought by the state against Ramraj.

Solicitor-General Kim Kyte-Thomas had told the Guyana Chronicle then that based on information provided by State Counsel Collene Liverpool, the judge never granted a permanent stay of the matter.

The matter of Madanlall Ramraj Vs The Attorney-General of Guyana, High Court Action No. HC-DEM-CIV-FDA-798 was last heard by Justice Navindra Singh on June 5, 2018.
She had called on Nandlall to produce a court order showing that a permanent stay of the matter has been granted by Justice Singh.
Kyte-Thomas contended that Magistrate Daly ordered that only parts of the forensic audit report into the GRDB, done by Nigel Hinds and relevant to Ramraj’s case, be produced to his attorneys.

In this regard, the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), which had brought the charges against Ramraj, provided the redacted report which reportedly amounts to some 160 pages, with only areas pertinent to Ramraj’s case visible. The other areas to the report were blotted out.

“A report relevant to the particular accused was ordered; not the whole report. We have complied with the order,” the Solicitor-General explained, and noted that providing the entire report would be exposing the affairs of other persons named in the report to Ramraj’s attorneys.

“The entire report is not relevant to Ramraj. The magistrate ordered what is relevant to them; that is why it is in that manner and form, so that they can’t peep other people’s business,” she told the Guyana Chronicle.

The solicitor-general made it clear then that it is the state’s responsibility to protect the confidentiality of other citizens, hence the redacted report being submitted in accordance with the magistrate’s order.

‘BIZARRE’
Nandlall, however, in a response described the statement issued by the AG’s Chambers as “bizarre.” He recounted that on June 5, 2018, the said matter involving his client was heard by Justice Singh, who ordered that unless a copy of the Forensic Audit Report of the GRDB was produced to his client or himself by June 8, a number of charges instituted against Ramraj, which are also pending before Magistrate Leron Daly, would be permanently stayed.

Six former GRDB members were last year charged jointly by SOCU for failing to make a proper entry in a register of a company.

Those charged are former Deputy General Manager, Ramraj; former General Manager, Jagnarine Singh; former board members Dharamkumar Seeraj, Badrie Persaud, PPP Parliamentarian Nigel Dharamlall; and former Deputy Permanent Secretary (Finance) in the Ministry of Agriculture, Prema Roopnarine.

The charges read that the six accused, between 2011 to 2015, at Lot 166-177 Cowan Street, Kingston, Georgetown, while being members of the GRDB board with intent to defraud, omitted and concurred, entries into a Republic Bank Agriculture Sector Development Unit lifeskill account on the general ledger of the corporation.

The six denied that in 2011, they omitted to enter some $52M in the GRDB ledger; they also denied that they omitted to enter a sum of $77.3M into the said ledger. Other charges read that between the years 2014 and 2015, the sums of $130M, $9.7M and $145M were respectively omitted from the GRDB register.