The Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) has completed its investigation of a recent rejected rice shipment to Panama and will soon seek legal advice.
A source told Stabroek News that the case file will soon be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for legal advice.
During the investigation several persons were questioned, including the miller responsible for the shipment, which contained the incorrect consignment. This newspaper was unable to ascertain what the investigation found.
When Stabroek News tried to contact Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) General Manager Nizam Hassan for an update on the matter, he had said a press conference would be convened to address the issue but this has not materialised.
Hassan had previously confirmed that more than 30 containers were stopped by the Panamanian authorities in September last year and rejected after it was found that parboiled rice was shipped instead of white rice, which millers are contractually obligated to supply.
As a result, the miller was given the directive to stop packaging rice during the nights at his facility and he was eventually stopped from exporting after they could not figure out the source of the issue.
Hassan had also explained that the GRDB was unsure of how the mix-up happened since it would have done checks to samples from the container before authorising its exportation. The miller had initially been unable to explain what had happened, however, head of the Guyana Rice Exporters and Millers Association (GREMA) Rajendra Persaud had related that the miller, during a subsequent meeting, accepted blame for the mix-up.
The matter was first taken to the Commissioner of Police by former Head of the Alesie Group of Companies Dr Turhane Doerga and others, and it was subsequently referred to SOCU.
Doerga had also told Stabroek News that he filed private charges against GRDB, as he was of the opinion that it was colluding with the miller whose rice was rejected.
“SOCU considered it a serious thing. You can’t export over 80,000 bags of non-compliant rice for a contract like the one for Panama and so we feel that there’s a tremendous risk that we lose the contract. There are similarities with the situation with the Venezuela deal and we are trying to ensure that the Panamanian government feel that there was an error and that stringent measures has taken place so we can continue the contract,” Doerga explained.
He added that the grader or some other person cannot be blamed for what happened and opined that there was collusion between the miller who exported the rice and the GRDB.
However, despite the issue, the Ministry of Agriculture announced last month that it had secured another contract, valued at US$5.2 million, to supply rice to the Panamanian market for December 2018 through 2019.
The contract will see 9.075 tonnes of white rice being shipped, and the according to the Ministry, the signing of the new contract comes after the country was able to successfully meet its quota.
