Exhibits for the trial of former Guyana Rice Board Development (GRDB) accountant Peter Ramcharran, who is charged with allegedly falsifying the entity’s account, could not be located when the proceedings continued yesterday.
The trial continued yesterday before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
Ramcharran was represented by defence attorney Nigel Hughes, who continued questioning the defence witness, Leslie Veerasammy.
At the start of the hearing, Hughes asked if Veerasammy would be allowed to continue his testimony as an expert if he brought his original certificates to the court. But the magistrate said no. She said that on the last occasion she found that there were no documents presented to the court which would prove Veerasammy’s qualification and the original documents of the photocopied documents that he presented on the last occasion would not make a difference. She then instructed Veerasammy to continue his testimony, which he did.
However, only minutes had passed when Hughes asked that Veerasammy be allowed to identify several exhibits. As a result the matter was adjourned, during which time the clerk was sent to retrieve the items. When the clerk returned, she told the magistrate that she could not find the exhibits in question. The Chief Magistrate subsequently informed the court the clerk was unable to find the exhibits. Nevertheless, she told Veerasammy to continue his testimony.
After he completed his testimony, Veerasammy was cross-examined by Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) prosecutor Patrice Henry.
During the cross-examination, Henry mentioned a forensic audit that was conducted by the government after an internal audit was done at GRDB.
The court learned, however, that the forensic audit report was never presented to the court and therefore was not tendered as evidence.
Regardless, the prosecutor continued his cross-examination of the witness without mentioning the report.
However, at the end of the cross-examination, Hughes asked to see what the forensic report contained since the next witness, Nigel Hinds, will soon be detailing the part he played when the forensic audit was conducted.
The Chief Magistrate told him to start the process to retrieve the report from the Ministry of Finance and further stated that if he fails to procure it by the next court date she will issue a court order for it to be made available to the court on the following occasion.
The matter was adjourned until Monday, January 6th, when Hinds is expected to commence his testimony.
Ramcharran is facing five charges for the falsification of accounts. The five charges allege that between the years 2015 and 2011, Ramcharran, while being the accountant of GRDB, failed to enter some $414 million in the GRDB ledger.
Ramcharran, 39, of Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara, was charged in March 2019 after being deported from Canada, where he was fighting extradition to Guyana for over two years.
In addition to the five charges, Ramcharran has 33 other charges before the courts.
