The trial of former PPP/C minister Dr Jennifer Westford and her former aide Margaret Cummings, who are charged with the theft of over $600 million from the government, continued on Friday with testimony from Alwayne Williams, the Accountant from the Ministry of the Presidency.
Williams told the court that his duties were to examine payment vouchers and to supervise the payment and receipt sections. The witness said he had been an accountant at the ministry for over five years and knew Westford, since she was the former minister of the Ministry of the Public Service and Cummings since she would frequent the then Office of the President from time to time. He said he and Cummings would have had personal interactions and would have dealt with official business at times. Williams said Cummings acted as the Admin Officer and Senior Personnel Officer at the Ministry of Public Service for approximately ten years.
Williams noted that in his department, vouchers for the ministries are prepared and that in order to prepare a voucher, there must be an invoice, memorandum and quotation, which must be approved by the Permanent Secretary. It would then be sent over to the Ministry of Finance’s Permanent Secretary, where it was given to the preparational clerk. He said that at this point the voucher would have already been approved by the accounting officer.
Williams said that if a voucher had been approved by the permanent secretary, a stamp and signature would have to be affixed. He also said that when the permanent secretary was not around to sign, the head of the presidential secretariat’s office, would provide an official letterhead, with an affixed stamp and signature.
The witness said that he had worked under four permanent secretaries: Nanda Gopaul, Jennifer Webster, Omar Shariff and Abena Moore, the current office holder and was au fait with their signatures. Williams said that when he examined vouchers the signatures of the permanent secretaries, also known as the accounting officer, must be there, as well as signatures of the preparation clerk, head of department and entering clerk. He also told the court that he looked for, the name of payee, nature of payment, the amount, official stamp and the line item activities. Williams told the court that the permanent secretary or accounting officer was always the last person to sign off on the memo’s invoice and payment vouchers along with the cheques.
After Williams’ testimony, State Counsel Natasha Backer told the court that 50 witnesses were slated to testify in the matter, but not all 50 might be called to the stand by the prosecution.
The matter was adjourned until February 15.
