By Zena Henry
THE possibility of legal action against the Guyana Rice Producers’ Association (RPA) for failing to repay a $100m loan to the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) should be considered now that close to three years, the agency is yet to repay the hefty sum.
This is according to Agriculture Minister, Noel Holder on Monday, when an update on the loan repayment was sought. “Nothing, not a cent,” has been repaid to the GRDB, Holder told the Guyana Chronicle. It was during a government-ordered audit of the GRDB in 2015 that it was found that the RPA had requested and received $100M for the purpose of allegedly paying rice farmers.

General Secretary of the RPA, Dharamkumar Seeraj, was identified as the one who signed off for the money which was received in July, 2014. A Promissory note signed by Seeraj on behalf of the RPA stated that the loan was supposed to be repaid by October 31, of that same year, but this is still to be done.
Only recently several former members of the GRDB, including Seeraj, have been charged with offences that relate to their alleged intent to defraud the GRDB. When the officials appeared in court to hear the charge, it was alleged that between 2012 and 2015, Seeraj and the others who sat on the GRDB at the time, committed acts that were contrary to the agency’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) to which they failed to make proper records of financial transactions which included loans, in the organisation’s register.

It was highlighted by Minister Holder that on the GRDB, there must be representatives of specifically related rice stakeholder agencies such as the RPA, the Ministry of Agriculture and millers’ representatives among others. Reports are at the time the RPA received the $100M, Seeraj and other RPA members were seated on the GRDB, and along with their colleagues, were the ones responsible for agreeing to issue the said loan.

When asked about the conflict of interest in relation to this issue, the Agriculture Minister agreed to same, but reiterated that those persons are, however, the representatives of the agencies that must have a seat on the GRDB as they relate to rice issue. When this matter was raised in the National Assembly last year, Seeraj, who is also a Member of Parliament representing the opposition side, refused to accept any responsibility for the unpaid loan, although he was the one to sign off for it and remains a senior official of the RPA. The opposition MP said that the $100M loan was not given to him, but to the RPA. He gave no indication as to when the loan would be repaid.

The six GRDB officials were placed on half a million dollars bail each last month when they appeared before Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan, at the Magistrate’s Court. They are accused of trying to defraud the GRDB of some $362m from the agency’s Republic Bank account. The accused, General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) Jagnarine Singh; former Deputy General Manager of the GRDB, Madanlall Ramraj; General Secretary of the Rice Producers Association (RPA) and PPP MP, Dharamkumar Seeraj; former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and PPP Member of Parliament, Nigel Dharamlall; former General Manager of the Guyana Oil Company, Badrie Persaud, and the Deputy Permanent Secretary Finance, Ministry of Agriculture, Prema Roopnarine, were not required to plead to the offence when they faced the court.