A $52M fraud charge against three former high-ranking officials of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), was, on Friday, August 30, 2019, dismissed by Senior Magistrate Leron Daly at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

The three officials are former General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) Jagnarine Singh, Deputy Permanent Secretary Finance in the Ministry of Agriculture, Prema Roopnarine; and former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and PPP/C Member of Parliament Nigel Dharamlall.

The dismissed charge stated that between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011, at Lot 116 to 117 Cowan Street, Kingston, being members of the GRDB, a body corporate, they omitted or concurred in omitting from the organization’s general ledger any entries particular to the sum of $52,000,000 in the Republic Bank account for its Agriculture Life Skills programme with intent to defraud.

Magistrate Daly on Friday dismissed the charge after ruling that, based on the evidence provided during the trial, the defendants were only on the board of the GRDB and had no responsibility in the accounts department of the said establishment.
However, the defendants will have to return to court on September 20, 2019, since they have similar matters before the same Magistrate.

Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) prosecutor will have to report on that date if those charges too will be withdrawn.
The trio is jointly charged with former Deputy General Manager of GRDB and People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) member Madanlall Ramraj; General Secretary of the Rice Producers Association (RPA) and PPP/C Member of Parliament, Dharamkumar Seeraj; and former General Manager of the Guyana Oil Company (GUYOIL) Badrie Persaud on four other charges.

In May, 2017, the six officials made their first appearance in court and denied the five charges.  They were released on $500,000 bail each with reporting conditions.
The six denied that, in 2011, they failed to enter some $52M in the GRDB ledger; they also denied that they omitted to enter a sum of $77.3M into the said ledger. Other charges read that between the years 2014 and 2015, the sums of $130M, $9.7M and $145M were respectively omitted from the GRDB register.
The charges stemmed from the findings of an audit into the finances of the GRDB.
Attorneys representing the persons charged included Anil Nandlall, Priya Manickchand, Sase Gunraj and Glen Hanoman.

The attorneys had collectively noted that the accused were very cooperative with SOCU on each occasion they were summoned and although the prosecution could not commence its case, it is unreasonable for the court to grant such harsh bail requirements, since they had initially asked for their respective clients to be released on their own recognizance.

In his application, Nandlall said the six persons charged are from a board of 15 former GRDB directors and the question must be asked why only six directors were charged.
He said the charges were selective and vindictive. The former attorney general said that the accused were not charged with stealing a single cent.
“There is no evidence that these people will be a flight risk,” he said.