THE trial against Former General Manager (GM) of the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (NGMC), Nizam Hassan and Felecia De Souza-Madramootoo, who are charged with conspiracy to procure money, continued on Friday at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

They are accused of paying themselves under false pretenses in relation to the approval of payments for low-graded rehabilitation works done on the NGMC building at Robb Street, Georgetown.

Accountant at NGMC, Owen Nestor, continued his testimony on Friday before Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan; the evidence in chief was led by Police Prosecutor, Arwin Moore.  The witness had given evidence earlier in the trial but had to be recalled. During Nestor’s past testimony, he told the court that in 2009, he included in the NGMC budget $10 million for the rehabilitation of the NGMC building.

According to Nestor, he submitted the budget to the Ministry of Agriculture, which would then submit it to the Ministry of Finance. However, he added that before the budget was submitted to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture would have held a review budget meeting for all the budgets pertaining to the ministry.

Nestor, while telling the court that no alterations were made to the budget at these meetings in his presence, explained that after it was submitted to the Ministry of Finance, it was then placed in the National Budget.

The Accountant during the last hearing, said that in 2010, the Corporation had received approval from the national budget for the rehabilitation of the building. Nestor said that he entered the information into the company’s file, and then told Hassan that they had received the $10 million for the rehabilitation.

Nestor told the court that the monies were deposited into the NGMC checking account at Republic Bank. The witness recounted that after the approval of the money, he had informed Hassan that the budgeted funds might not be sufficient for the rehabilitation of the building. However, he said that Hassan told him there were some savings from NGMC, and he would speak with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture about getting approval to use those monies.

At Friday’s hearing, Nestor recounted to court the monies paid at different intervals via cheque to Constantine Engineering and Construction Services Limited for the rehabilitation of the building amounting to $10M.

The trial will continue on July 6, 2017. A total of 34 witnesses are expected to be called by the Prosecutor. In the meantime, Hassan, 50, of Good Hope, East Coast Demerara and De Souza-Madramootoo, 34, of Lusignan, East Coast Demerara have each been released on $250,000 bail.

The duo has been instructed to report to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) Headquarters, Camp Road, Georgetown and instructed to lodge their passports with the court.

It is alleged that between October 28, 2010 and April 25, 2012, they conspired with each other to commit the offence by continuously approving payments, which were made to the contractor of the engineering firm, for works that were incompetently and incorrectly done with inferior materials to rehabilitate the NGMC building at Robb and Alexander Streets, Bourda, Georgetown; knowing that such works should not have been approved.