The Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on Thursday returned 24 files to the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and requested additional investigations into a multi-million dollar theft from the former Public Service Ministry.
In a brief statement issued on Thursday, the DPP’s Chambers said the files, labelled “Alleged larceny by Public Officer Committed on the Public Service Ministry by Dr. Jennifer Westford and Margaret Cummings,” were received from the GPF on the 9th, 23rd, 28th and 30th of December, 2015.
It added that the files were returned on Thursday with legal advice given to the police to complete their investigations.
The statement added that it was “the third occasion that these 24 files are being returned to the GPF with specific instructions for them to comply with previous advice given pertaining to the clarification of issues and the conduct of further investigations.”
Contacted yesterday for a comment on the statement, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum said that he recently had a discussion with the DPP in relation to the files and he intends to go through them. He, therefore, said that he will be only give an update later pertaining to the matter.
Westford and Cummings, who was the personnel officer at the former ministry, became the focus of a police probe after the unauthorised attempt to transfer the registration of several ministry vehicles was unearthed soon after the new government took office last year May. The matter is currently before the court and a ruling is to be handed down on January 19.
Following that probe, a decision was taken to conduct an in-depth investigation of the finances of the ministry.
It was then discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars could not be accounted for.
The missing money had been transferred from the former Office of the President to enable the Public Service Ministry to carry out duties in various regions.
The figure was initially pegged at $120M but has since risen to in excess of $600M.
