HEAD of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), Assistant Commissioner, Sydney James is scheduled to appear before the Georgetown Magistrate’s court on Monday June 5, 2017 to explain why an arrest warrant should be issued for former accountant of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Peter Ramcharran.

Ramcharran was responsible for ‘signing off’ on a number of questionable transactions that were traced to the six officials who were recently charged and others caught up in the GRDB probe.

On Thursday, five charges of falsification of accounts were filed and sworn to in court by an investigating rank; however Ramcharran was not present in court since he reportedly fled the jurisdiction to Canada during SOCU’s investigation.

But SOCU’s Prosecutor, Patrice Henry explained to Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan on Thursday that the accused was informed about the court proceeding and was ordered to be present in court.  The Magistrate adjourned the matter until June 5, 2017 at 13:15hrs and ordered that the Head of SOCU be present at the next hearing to satisfy the court why an arrest warrant be issued for Ramcharran.

The allegation was made against Ramcharran during SOCU’s investigation in which six former GRDB officials were charged and released on $500,000 bail for failing to make a proper entry into a register of a company two week ago.

The six officials charged are former GRDB head, Madulall Ricky Ramraj; former General Manager Jagnarine Singh; former GRDB board members Dharamkumar Seeraj, Badrie Persaud, PPP Parliamentarian Nigel Dharamlall and former Deputy Permanent Secretary (Finance) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Prema Roopnarine.

During SOCU’s investigation, Ramcharran was found to have falsified accounts at the GRBD of over $400M between the years of 2011 to 2015 while being the account at the company.