The source took exception to suggestions by Singh on Saturday that the photographs showing defects in the new hostel were adjusted to heighten flaws. “Those photographs were taken by professionals and there is no need to lie, the hostel is already falling apart and it is a shame,” the source who provided the photographs told Stabroek News.
“It is ridiculous for Mr Singh to say such a thing and for him to say that means that he is scraping the bottom of the barrel,” the source said.
Singh and another board member and attorney Sanjeev Datadin took Stabroek News on a tour of the hostel and the President reported that it was wood ants nests that were in the photographs. However this newspaper did also observe cracks in the walls.
And the source said that the toilets are not falling apart because of vandalism as was suggested on Saturday but rather because they are “inferior toilet bowls and would fall apart by itself” when the contractor had promised that the electrical and the toilet fittings were of the “highest quality.”
“What Mr Singh should have done was to call for an immediate forensic audit to be done of the board’s finances following the very serious allegations,” the source told Stabroek News yesterday.
Instead when questioned about this on Saturday, Singh told Stabroek News that he was not going to be engaged in a tit for tat, and that he would respond to all the allegations when they would have come to an end. He labelled the allegations as “baseless” and said that it is his intention to respond specifically to each allegation.
Another source told this newspaper that instead of taking Stabroek News to tour the LBI hostel, Singh should have summoned an emergency meeting with the 13-member executive to discuss the allegations of irregularities which followed an acid attack on Pretipaul Jaigobin, the assistant treasurer of the board last week Tuesday. The source said that at least six members of the board, including Jaigobin, knew nothing of Singh’s intention to take Stabroek News on a tour of the facility.
Jaigobin had said that the attack was a result of him speaking out against the mishandling of the board’s finances and other wrongdoings.
Sources have also indicated that concerned persons will soon contact the West Indies Cricket Board on the issue.
During a visit to the Georgetown Hospital Burn Care Unit yesterday where Jaigobin is hospitalized, family members were reluctant to say anything but a close associate told Stabroek News that the man was in “good spirits.” And while he has said he will resign from the board, sources said some of his colleagues are lobbying for him to remain as it is felt that should he leave others will follow and whoever was behind the attack would have succeeded.
One particular matter which had evoked strong concern from Jaigobin was the hiking of the cost to build the LBI hostel by $26M. The board had originally approved $42M to construct the hostel but in the end some $69M was spent and the additional sum was not approved by the board. Stabroek News was also told that it was through Jaigobin’s diligent investigation that it was learnt that while the financial report of last year’s end Cricket Festival Twenty/20 competition suggested that the board had made a profit it actually suffered a loss.
Jaigobin had also spoken out against the arbitrary changing of the constitution that governs the board and was a member of the three-man team appointed to investigate the Anna Regina hostel and its finance issues.
Reports reaching this newspaper are that at a March 12 board meeting, at which at least four members were absent, a decision was taken to employ the services of a well known accounting firm to conduct a forensic audit but this decision was later over-ruled by a senior member.
At that meeting the issue of how $1M was disbursed to the Essequibo Cricket Board to assist its women’s cricket programme without a budget being presented and without a discussion and approval of the executive committee was raised.
Some members had expressed concerns that such a disbursement could be interpreted as the board having a preference to financially assist one board to the exclusion of the two other boards.
It was at the very meeting that Jaigobin objected to officers of the GCB who approved vouchers also signing the related cheques while stating that the practice was “highly improper.” He also informed the said meeting that the Finance Committee of the board had met seven weeks before the March 12 date at which time there was some $12M in the board’s account. He suggested that with the ongoing expenditure, the finances of the board may have been reaching a “critical stage.”
“He said that some figures presented in previous financial reports have not been entirely accurate,” Stabroek News was told, and it was after this statement that a decision was taken to have the forensic audit and for the Essequibo Board to be written to requesting a detailed breakdown of how the $1M was spent.
