A rank attached to the Guyana Police Force’s Fraud Squad last Friday took a statement from an Alberttown, Georgetown businessman regarding $10 million which was reportedly paid to him by head of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) Sydney James for the rental of vehicles.
This development comes amidst concerns that the recommendations of the audit of SOCU are being ignored and more than a month after the police legal advisor, retired Justice Claudette Singh, instructed that additional statements be taken.
Fizal Ali, the power of attorney for his son, who is the owner of Aidan’s Car Rental, told Sunday Stabroek yesterday that the rank indicated that he wanted a statement about the transactions between him and James, particularly when the vehicles were rented.
He said he indicated to the rank that the police auditors have the receipts with the information.
Ali told this newspaper that he has received no word about the outstanding sums owed and will be taking legal action to recoup his money.
During an interview in early May, he had told this newspaper that he was owned close to $2 million for the rental of two high end vehicles over a six month period. He insisted that that he played no part in wrongdoing and just wanted the money that he was owed.
As part of the audit, James had submitted records to show that $10.3 million was paid to Ali for car rental services. The vagueness of the receipts, which have no letterhead or official stamps, raised red flags. This was further compounded by what the auditors said was the businessman’s refusal to cooperate.
According to the audit report, a copy of which was seen by this newspaper, auditors contacted Ali and after informing him of the ongoing audit at SOCU, he related that all of his records were intact and immediately produced a file containing several copies of receipts.
“On his receipts, it was observed that the vehicle registration numbers and rental periods were stated,” the report said.
Ali, the report said, was shown the receipts that were given to the auditors by SOCU and stated that his wife wrote the receipts, not him, and that he would produce copies of the rental receipts on February 20th for the auditors.
An arrangement was made for the auditors to collect the receipts on the following day but according to the report they returned at 10 am and at 2 pm but Ali was not around.
On March 25th, one of the auditors returned and was told by Ali to return on March 27th.
According to the report, at 1.30 pm on the new date the auditor returned to the business but Ali was not there. A woman, however, was there and called Ali on his cell phone. The auditor spoke to him but before he could have uttered a proper greeting, the report said, Ali stated clearly that he “was not working with the police and that he would not provide any information to any auditor” before the call was disconnected.
“It is clear, Ali, whether by his own volition or on instructions was, and is not willing to cooperate with the Auditors. It only lends to the impression that he is involved in corrupt transactions,” the report stated.
The audit recommended that Ali be reported to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) for providing unofficial receipts to the police, since it is required by GRA for official businesses to have letterhead receipts with their TIN number and his did not.
The amount paid to Ali represented 43.6% of SOCU’s expenditure for the audit period.
Ali has vehemently denied that he was uncooperative and had stressed that he was available at any time to give the ranks what they needed.
Among the more than a dozen recommendations was the immediate transfer of James and his secretary. James, however, is still on the job
It was Police Commissioner Leslie James who initiated the audit in February following claims of grave mismanagement, including the spending of the operational fund. That audit, which covered the last three years, was completed sometime in April and the final report handed over to James. On May 15th, it was sent to Justice Singh for advice and returned to police the same day.
The Commissioner has not publicly commented on the findings of the audit, despite attempts by the media to raise the matter.
Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan on May 3rd had said that the “damning” findings of the police audit require the “shifting around” of persons and possibly firings. “I understand that action will be taken by the Commissioner…I saw the report and it is not a very nice report,” Ramjattan had said in response to questions from this newspaper.
While noting that the Commissioner has promised to take action, he made it clear that he cannot interfere in the matter. “Operational matters a minister must not indulge in and that is an operational matter,” he said, while noting that the commissioner ordered the audit after receiving information and indicated that he will take action. “He told me. I am hoping that it will be action taken very early,” he had added.
He would later say that he is still awaiting an update from the commissioner on probe.
