Senior Magistrate Leron Daly last week announced that the trial of former Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson and the former General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC) Rawlston Adams, who are accused of defrauding the DHBC, will begin in April.
The Georgetown magistrate has so far set April 20th and April 21st for the trial proceedings.
While some statements have been submitted, more are expected to be filed.
The two men currently face a joint charge that states that between November 18th, 2016, and February 1st, 2018, at Georgetown, they conspired with each other and with other persons unknown to defraud the DHBC of $162,635,015, funds of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation Asphalt Plant Account, for a project about a feasibility study and design for a new bridge which was not a function of the said DHBC and for which the said money could not be used.
They have been released on $200,000 bail each.
The charge stemmed from a probe by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) over Patterson’s role in sole-sourcing a company, which had conducted a feasibility study and design for a new Demerara Harbour Bridge.
The Public Procurement Commission (PPC) had completed an investigation into the Auditor General’s Report for the fiscal year 2016 and it revealed that the Ministry had breached the Procurement Act in awarding a contract in December 2016 to LievenseCSO for the job. According to the investigation, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure did not heed the advice offered by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board to retender the project. Instead, the company was engaged by the then ministry to go ahead with the work. Patterson had defended the single-sourcing and said that Cabinet had been fully involved in the decision to hire LievenseCSO and there were constraints surrounding the need to complete the new bridge.
