Former Region Four REO Shafdar Alli, who was implicated in a multimillion-dollar fraud against the state, says he has since been informed that no charges will be instituted against him.
In a press statement, the first since the fraud allegation was made public; Alli said his case file which police had sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice has been returned to them. The DPP, according to Alli, advised that no charges be laid against him since there was “nothing criminal” against him.
Several attempts made by Stabroek News to contact Crime Chief Seelall Persaud for a comment about this were futile. Persaud, the last time he spoke of the matter, had only said that it was being investigated and had refused to comment further.
On December 30, 2009, Alli explained, the current acting Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development instructed him to proceed on two weeks leave. “I enquired from him why I was being sent on leave,” Alli said, “and his response to me was, ‘I’m instructing you to proceed on leave from tomorrow and you must hand over to the DREO (Deputy Regional Executive Officer).’”
The following day (December 31, 2009), Alli said, he tried to contact the subject Minister Kellawan Lall to find out what was happening. However, he was not successful and was told by the PS “to hand over everything” including the keys to his office to the DREO and that he must not enter the building or compound.
Alli subsequently wrote to Head of the Presidential Secretariat Roger Luncheon informing him of the situation and asking for his intervention then later to President Bharrat Jagdeo but got no response from either.
The police then issued a wanted bulletin for Alli and he turned himself in on March 4. The February 26 bulletin had said Alli (then the Region Four REO) was “wanted by the police for questioning in relation to a multimillion-dollar fraud committed on the State of Guyana.” Less than 72 hours after his arrest Alli was released on $100,000 station bail.
The former REO said that he is still in a state of dismay that the wanted bulletin was issued when he was never informed that his presence at Criminal Investigation Department Headquarters, Eve Leary was needed during the investigation which had been launched.
At Eve Leary, Alli discovered that police wanted to question him about his relation to a supplier which had been supplying the region steadily and was allegedly inflating costs and forging documents to support the change in price. They also questioned him about what benefit he derived from continuously allowing this supplier to supply the region.
For two days, Alli said, he was questioned intensely by police and was then released. He said he was told by police that his file would be sent to the DPP for advice. It was recently that Alli learnt via his attorney, Khemraj Ramjattan, that no charges would be levelled against him.
Last month Minister Lall told Stabroek News that Alli’s REO contract had not been renewed. Ashford Ambedkar is currently in Alli’s former office.
AG’s Report
It was while he was off on leave, Alli said, that he learnt an investigation had been launched by the Auditor General (AG). The investigation, Alli further said, seemed “abnormal”. Usually, he explained, when audits are being conducted, the accounting officer would be interviewed and allowed to respond to the preliminary findings before the final report is prepared and action is taken.
“In this case this did not happen,” Alli said. “I have been reliably informed that several persons including contractors, suppliers and staff members of the Regional Administration were called in by the Auditor General but I was never called in.”
What was the investigation about? This was a question Alli asked in his press statement. He believes that “they wanted persons to confess that they have given me money in return for works granted to them, one instance is that they asked the supplier [name of supplier] to say that she bribed me to get the supply of items to the region, in fact she was locked up for five days in order to make such a confession. The expeditor was also told that he should give a statement that I took money from the supplier and he would go free…”
Examination of the Region Four transactions, Lall had said in a March 4 press release, showed that only one person was supplying Region Four with goods and services in areas like maintenance and the supply of various items. The cost of the items and services supplied amounted to more than $100 million. For some of the items needed, the ‘three-quotes system’ was used for selection but most of the time the region’s Tender Board decided who would supply what.
Contract splitting
In key findings, as it related to ministries, departments or regions, the AG in his report (on the Public Accounts of Guyana and on the accounts of the ministries, departments and regions for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008) stated: “Several breaches of Tender Board Procedures occurred, especially in Region Four, where contracts were subdivided in order to avoid adjudication by the respective Tender Boards. Also, quotations from suppliers were falsified to facilitate the awarding of contracts to specific persons, and purchases were made from individuals who were not considered to be established suppliers. As a result, fraudulent practices to the value of $6.931 million were perpetuated on the Regional Administration… during the year audited and an amount of $21 million in 2009.”
In response to the AG’s findings regarding the breach of Tender Board procedures, Alli said, “The Regional Tender Board is made up of five members including the REO as Chairman. The others are the Sub Treasury Officer, a District Education Officer, an Officer from the Ministry of Finance and a Regional Councillor. From the beginning of the year 2009, Regional Councillor Maureen Philadelphia absented herself from the meetings of the Regional Tender Board, stating that she was instructed by the Regional Chairman not to attend. The Sub Treasury Officer was subsequently promoted to PAS (f) which left the Tender Board with three members. Recommendation was made to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board for replacements of the vacancies, but this did not happen up to December 30, 2009. Please note that a quorum of the board requires three members and in the situation outlined above, this was not always possible. In many cases the representative of the Ministry of Finance could not attend as she was always otherwise occupied.
Accordingly, in those circumstances in order to execute the work programme of the region the situation of contract splitting would have occurred.
The situation as regards the non-functioning of the Tender Board and the need to implement the work programme by contract splitting was brought to the attention of the Permanent Secretary (ag), Ministry of Local Government both orally and in writing.”
Alli stressed that he is not aware of any forged minutes of the Tender Board and said that all were prepared based on meetings that took place.
“I have not committed any fraud,” Alli said, “nor have I benefited from any transaction personally. Whatever I did was in the best interest of the government and the regional administration.”
