A city magistrate this afternoon dismissed a fraud matter involving three former board members of the Guyana Rice Development (GRDB) who were accused of failing to make proper entries into the general ledger of the GRDB’s Republic Bank account, amounting to some $250M.
Those charged were former GRDB Manager Jagnarine Singh; former Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Prema Roopnarine; and PPP/C Member of Parliament Nigel Dharamlall.
The charge against the trio alleged that they failed to record entries for funds amounting to over $250M in the agency’s general ledger.
Magistrate Leron Daly of the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts this afternoon ruled that, after going through the entirety of the evidence, she was of the opinion that Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) Prosecutor Lawrence Harris was unable to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Hence, she dismissed the matter and told the defendants they were free to go.
GRDB is the authority charged with overseeing the rice industry throughout the country. Upon entering government in May 2015, the David Granger-led administration immediately ordered a number of forensic audits to determine the health of the state agencies.
With regards to the GRDB report, it was noted that over a three to four-year period, more than US$500M from the PetroCaribe proceeds (Venezuela rice-for-oil deal) would have passed through the accounts of the entity.
Among some of the “anomalies” found were loans without proper paperwork or promissory notes. There were other instances of persons in the agency using GRDB’s money to trade in foreign currency.
The losses for the government would have been significant, especially if the money was traded for less than it should have been.
The Auditor General and the forensic audit reports have all pointed to severe deficiencies in the manner the monies of the state have been handled by the entities.
