Come February 14, 2020, Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan will make a ruling in the matter relating to one of the trials involving former accountant of Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Peter Ramcharran.
This was disclosed this morning when the matter was called in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
Ramcharran is facing five charges for the falsification of accounts for which the Chief Magistrate ruled sufficient evidence was found against him. Ramcharran was slapped with 39 fraud charges for alleged breaches within GRDB.
The Chief Magistrate is dealing with 22 of the matters, while Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus is presiding over the 17 charges of keeping fraudulent accounts.
Ramcharran, 39, of Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara, was charged in March 2019 after being deported from Canada where he was fighting extradition to Guyana for over two years.
Particulars of the first five charges alleged that between the years 2011 and 2015, Ramcharran, while being the accountant of GRDB, failed to enter some $414M in the GRDB ledger.
Ramcharran was slapped with 17 charges which alleged that he, along with former General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Jagnarine Singh and his deputy, Madanlall Ramraj, omitted entries into the company’s ledger.
The charges alleged that Ramcharran failed to enter true entries of over $4.2M into the company’s ledger, knowing that it was contrary to standard operating procedures between 2011 and 2012, at the company’s Lot 16-17 Cowan Street, Kingston head office.
The last 17 charges alleged that Ramcharran, along with Singh and Ramraj, fraudulently took $5.1M or used the sum for their own use and benefit, or any use and purpose other than that of the GRDB.
According to information, from about 2009 to 2015, Guyana, under the administration of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, had entered into a multi-billion-dollar oil-for-rice arrangement where GRDB was clearing out for farmers.
However, millions of dollars of those monies were reportedly siphoned off via third-party arrangements, including rental of ships and other sweetheart deals for a few millers.
