…Investigation into works on GMC building

After fleeing the jurisdiction for less than two years, the project engineer behind the low-graded rehabilitation works done on the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), building at Robb Street, Georgetown was on Wednesday arrested and charged.

Hanniel Madramootoo, 35 of Lusignan, East Coast Demerara along with his brother Phillip Madramootoo and his friend Nizam Ramkissoon, Directors of Constantine Engineering and Construction Services Limited, Trinidad and Tobago had fled the country in 2016 following an investigation into works done on the GMC building.

However, early Wednesday morning Hanniel Madramootoo was arrested at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport upon his arrival to Guyana. He was blacklisted in Guyana after an arrest warrant was issued for him along with his two other co-accused.
Madramootoo was placed before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court and was not required to answer to the joint charge while arrest warrants were issued for the two other accused.

The charge read that between October 28, 2010 and April 25, 2012, Madramootoo conspired with his wife Felecia De Souza-Madramootoo, Phillip Madramootoo, Ramkissoon and General Manager of GMC , Nizam Hassan to continuously approve 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 GMC building at Robb and Alexander Streets, Bourda, Georgetown; knowing that such works should not have been approved.
Police Prosecutor Richard Harris told the court that Nizam Hassan, and Felecia De Souza-Madramootoo were earlier charged with the same offence and were before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan. However the case was dismissed due to the prosecution’s failure to prove its case.
Harris noted that efforts were made by the Government of Guyana who contacted the Trinidad and Tobago Government for the trio to be arrested and deported to Guyana to face the charges.
The efforts proved futile since the men were reportedly hiding in Trinidad.
The prosecutor objected to Madramootoo being released on bail on the grounds that he posed a flight risk since he had already fled the jurisdiction.
Madramootoo’s attorney, Glen Hanoman, did not take the prosecution’s claims lightly and told the court that his client was never hiding in Trinidad but was studying engineering and came back to Guyana after completing his studies.
Hanoman explained that that the charges since of a civil nature and begged the court for his client to be released on self-bail.
Magistrate Daly had granted Madramootoo $1M bail but later reduced it to $500,000 bail after the attorney pleaded with the court. He was also ordered to hand over all his travel documents to the court and have to report to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) headquarters weekly.
The matter was transferred to Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan for June 29.
In October 2016 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 had 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 in 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 were 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.”