THE former General Manager of the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (NGMC), Nizam

Hassan, 50, of Good Hope, East Coast Demerara, has been jointly charged with Felicia DeSouza-Madramootoo, 34, of Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, for fraud committed on the NGMC.

Appearing before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan on Monday, Hassan, currently General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), and DeSouza-Madramootoo, a St George’s Secondary School teacher, stood accused of

conspiring with others to approve payments for Constantine Engineering and Construction Limited of Trinidad and Tobago for substandard work done on the GMC building, knowing the work done was poor.

DeSouza-Madramootoo’s husband, Hanniel Madramootoo, project engineer within the Ministry of Agriculture, his brother Philip Madramootoo and his friend Nizam Ramkisson, both directors of Constantine Engineering and Construction Limited, have been jointly charged in connection with the same fraud

allegation. However, these three defendants were not present in court, since they have since fled to Trinidad. This has caused the Chief Magistrate to issue an arrest warrant for their arrest.

The charge they face details that between October 28, 2010 and April 25, 2012, they continuously approved payments for construction works which were incompetently and incorrectly done on the GMC building at Robb and Alexander Streets, Bourda, Georgetown, fully knowing that such works should have not been approved for payment.

The duo was not required to plead to the indictable charge, since the three co-accused have not yet been arrested.

DeSouza-Madramootoo is being represented by Attorney Glen Hanoman, while Hassan is being represented by Attorney Marcel Bobb. These lawyers both explained that throughout the investigation, their clients have cooperated fully with officers attached to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).

According to Attorney Hanoman, the matter was not properly advised by the Director of Public Prosecutions, since it is a civil, and not a criminal, case.

Police prosecutor Inspector Neville Jeffers did not object to bail being granted the defendants, but requested that reporting conditions be attached and the passports of the defendants be lodged at the court.

The Chief Magistrate released the duo on $250,000 each, and ordered that they each report to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) headquarters every Friday until the case has been determined. The matter stands adjourned until December 7, since the prosecution file is still incomplete.

Less than three weeks ago, SOCU completed its report into the investigations on the construction of the building, which had been contracted out in 2011. A forensic audit report submitted by auditor Saykar Boodhoo back in April has flagged the faulty work on the building.

DEEPER INVESTIGATION
The forensic audit report was submitted to Cabinet, where it was decided that the findings of the report were serious enough to warrant a deeper investigation, not only into the work done on the building, but also the handling of hundreds of millions of dollars of fertilisers.

The auditor contended that the principals of the company should be charged for using substandard building materials, and be barred from executing projects for the Guyana Government.

Searches, according to the report, uncovered no trace of the existence of Constantine Engineering and Construction Services, located at #55 Calcutta Road, #2 Freeport, Carapichaima, Trinidad.

The company won the bid for a contract worth almost $24M for the construction of a new building for the GMC head office and the Guyana Shop. On February 10, 2012, the contract was amended to include an additional $7,620,984, for which there was no tender.

The auditor was unable to review the bidding documents, since the head of tender board said he could not find any evidence in his files that showed that the tender board had been involved in the tender process, even though the contract indicated otherwise.

Shortly after the contract was amended, the contractor announced to the GMC that he would be unable to complete the project, and to date, it is unclear how much money was paid to Constantine Engineering. Thus another contractor was called in to complete the electrical wiring and relevant works to the building.

LEAKING ROOF
The report said that, within months of the handover, the entire roof of the GMC building was leaking; and as such, a contractor had to be brought in to effect repairs.

It was discovered that “old lumber and old zinc sheets with euroband was used to construct the roof of the building,” the report said. It noted that the bill of quantities of the contract for the construction of the office building stipulates Greenheart lumber for the floors, walls and frame, and PVC for the two ceilings of the building. However, it was later observed that mixed hardwood, including “second quality lumber”, had been used for the walls, and plywood had been used for the ceiling. Plywood is significantly cheaper than PVC panels.

The audit report said it was the Agriculture Ministry’s engineer who had certified the payment vouchers for the plywood, even though there was no amendment for this material to be used in the construction.

The auditor had, in this regard, recommended that the police be called in “to investigate the fraud of using incorrect materials and fraudulent billing for the construction of the building”.

It was also recommended that since it was the engineer who had certified the payments, “he should be charged criminally, and brought before the courts for his participation in conducting fraud against the Government of Guyana.”