…court issues arrest warrant

CHIEF Magistrate Ann McLennan has issued an arrest warrant for former accountant of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Peter Ramcharran, even as the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) has made formal representation to authorities here for him to be extradited to face the charges.

Ramcharran is reportedly in Canada and SOCU has since approached the relevant authorities to make the formal request for the former accountant to be extradited. Meanwhile, head of SOCU, Assistant Commissioner, Sydney James, told the Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday that the arrest warrant was issued for Ramcharran on five counts falsification of accounts.
James appeared before the Georgetown Magistrate’s court on Monday to explain why an arrest warrant should be issued for the former accountant. 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. Last week, 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 Special Prosecutor Patrice Henry had explained to Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan that the accused was informed about the court proceedings and was ordered to be present in court. The magistrate had 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 should 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 2011 to 2015 while being the account at the company.