Those former and serving police officers slapped with charges yesterday relating to a $10M fraud investigation are heroes, says former Public Securities Minister, and Leader of the Alliance for Change (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan.
Assistant Police Commissioner Royston Andries-Junor, Senior Superintendent of Police Marcelene Washington and Asst. Superintendent Marlon Kellman were charged along with retired senior officers Paul Slowe, Clinton Conway, Claude Whittaker, George Fraser, Mark Gilbert, and Michael Sutton for allegedly conspiring with each other and persons unknown to defraud the Guyana Police Force (GPF) of $10,056,000.
Ramjattan, under whose tenure the alleged acts were committed, vehemently denied any wrongdoing was committed. He said, during a live programme, ‘In Perspective’ hosted by Branford Burke this morning, that the arrest and charging of these individuals form part of a ‘sickening witch-hunt’, and an attempt to sully the name of these ‘heroes’ by making them villains.
“Paul Slowe is a complete professional – one of the best that we have. Conway, also, to a large extent. Conway’s reputation as a senior officer has a lot to do with the intellectualism that he brings; he writes papers, he writes very long letters about policing, and going to the academia and show his research in all of these things. Then there are professionals in Whittaker and so many of them that [sic] were charged…And all of a sudden, I noticed here, a number of heroes, literally, are being made villains,” Ramjattan said.
The former and serving officials will return to court on June 3, 2021.
They were jointly charged and not required to plea when they – with the exception of Slowe and Washington – appeared in front of Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus in Court 3 of the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
It is alleged that between March 1, 2019, and July 7, 2020, at the GPF Headquarters, Eve Leary, Georgetown, they conspired together and with other persons to defraud the force of $10,056,000, by paying Slowe, Conway, Whittaker, Fraser, and Gilbert, the said $10M. This was allegedly done without complying with the proper procedures, purportedly to do a review of the GPF standing order which had already commenced in July 2018, and concluded in March 2019, by the strategic planning of the GPF.
Guyana Standard reported yesterday that Sutton was also separately charged with misconduct in public office. It is alleged that while performing duties as a finance officer at the GPF Headquarters, Eve Leary, Georgetown, between July 1, 2019, and July 31, 2019, he willfully misconducted himself by signing seven vouchers as the accounting officer, which he was not authorized to do, enabling Slowe, Conway, Whittaker, Fraser, and Gilbert to be paid a total of $1,776,000, without the approval of Daniella Calmon, the accounting officer, without any reasonable excuse or justification.
The persons charged were represented by a battery of lawyers comprising Nigel Hughes, Patrice henry, Narisa Leander and others, who made successful bail applications. For the joint charge, they were each placed on $100,000 bail. Sutton was placed on an additional $100,000 bail for the misconduct in public office charge.
