General Secretary of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Anand Sanasie was yesterday arrested by the Fraud Department of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) before being released later yesterday afternoon.
Sanasie was arrested early yesterday morning after being invited to visit the Guyana Police Force headquarters at Eve Leary which he did.
He was asked to provide officers of the GPF with a statement which he did yesterday afternoon and was later allowed to go on his own recognizance.
He is to report back to Eve Leary on Monday.
Sanasie’s lawyer Roysdale Forde told Stabroek Sport last night that his client was arrested in connection with an alleged fraud within the GCB.
“He provided a statement to the police indicating that he’s not involved in any fraudulent or corrupt act in relation to the GCB,” Forde told Stabroek Sport late last night.
Forde said the allegations did not concern Sanasie in particular but rather the GCB.
Meanwhile Sources told Stabroek Sport that, Sanasie’s arrest might be related to testimony given to the GPF in relation to the granting of visas for a tour by the national cricket team to Canada in 2009 and of his involvement in the construction of the GCB Hostel at La Bonne Intention.
The Sources also stated that the Rupert Foster Report revealed a number of financial irregularities and called on the government to conduct a forensic audit.
According to the Sources, the issue of visas being granted to “non cricketers” apparently surfaced after players on a representative Guyana team to Canada was denied entry visas by the Canadian Embassy.
“The whole team got turned down,” the Sources told Stabroek Sport.
According to the Sources, as much as 80 letters might have been signed by GCB officials during that period.
They claimed that while it is the responsibility of the GCB to write the various embassies requesting visas for players for the sole purpose of playing cricket abroad, only national players were entitled to letters.
Stabroek Sports also understand that the GPF have shown an interest in two cricketers, Wasim Haslim and Marvin Munroe and the two cricketers were invited to Eve Leary yesterday.
Sanasie in his statement to the GPF, said that based on the report from the auditors and investigators, there “is no implication of any wrong doing on my part.”
He added that he was a member of a selection committee which examined the bids for the hostel adding that Claude Raphael, another committee member, “was solely tasked with the responsibility for determining the suitable person to be shortlisted.”
Sanasie, in his statement, said he had admitted to the other members of the Selection Committee, that he knew all three of the shortlisted persons since they had done work for him.
He also said that the contract was signed by himself with Bissoondyal Singh, a former Vice President of the GCB, as witness.
On the issue of improperly issuing letters to Embassies and High Commissions for the purpose of acquiring visas, Sanasie stated that “there was never any clear policy of the Guyana Cricket Board outlining the conditions and requirements for the issuance of letters to the Embassies and High Commissions.”
He said in the statement that he was attaching letters from his predecessor, Bishwa Panday, which would verify that letters were not only issued to senior national cricketers.
Sanasie also stated that on his assumption to the office of General Secretary of the GCB, he instructed that changes be made to the issuance of letters in order to improve the transparency and accountability process.
On the issuance of letters to Haslim and Munroe, Sanasie revealed that letters were written indicating that Haslim was a “Selectee in the Guyana National Squad for the 2006 Under-19 Regional Competition and that Munroe “was a National Cricketer. He represented Guyana at the Under-15 level in 1997 and at the Under-19 level in 2001.
“Bissoondyal Singh signed this letter as the acting president of the Guyana Cricket Board and then passed it to me for my signature which I affixed. Shortly thereafter, Bissoondyal Singh collected the letter (Marvin Munroe) from the office of the Guyana Cricket Board and cancelled his signature and informed me he had subsequently remembered that Marvin Munroe was actually not a National Cricketer but played for Demerara.
“As a consequence of this, the signed letter was never actually issued by the Guyana Cricket Board and remains in file,” Sanasie stated.
“In relation to the allegations that there were 13 (thirteen) cricketers who received visas from the Canadian High Commission to travel for a Independent Cricket Tournament, I say that this Tournament is and was usually organized by the Guyana Consulate in Toronto, Canada, GO-INVEST and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.
That all visas arrangements were undertaken by GO-INVEST and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport. I signed and issued no Letters to any Cricketers to go to the Canadian High Commission with respect to the Independent Tournament in Toronto, Canada. I wish to point out that Neil Kumar, Director of the Sport, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, travelled to Canada with the Cricketers as a Match Scorer and may be able to provide information in this regard,” Sanasie stated.
