Attorney for ex-GRDB accountant says SOCU failed to prove account falsified
The attorney for Peter Ramcharran, the former Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) accountant on trial for falsifying an account, yesterday made no-case submissions.
Ramcharran is currently being tried by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan for five charges of falsification of an account.
The charges allege that Ramcharran, while being the accountant of the GRDB, omitted to enter a total in excess of $414 million in the GRDB ledger.
Gunraj yesterday told the court that the nine witnesses called by the prosecution each gave contradictory accounts of the physical appearance of the ledger in question. He noted that one witness, Allison Peters, described the ledger as a physical document, while almost every other witness contended that the ledger is a computerised document that is printed as necessary. He noted that even those who testified that the ledger is computerised document were at odds to reconcile what it consisted of.
Gunraj further argued that various witnesses also gave varying accounts of who had access, by way of computerised control, to the general ledger. He highlighted that even if his client input an entry into the ledger it could have been removed or altered by another person.
The attorney made it clear that the prosecutor failed to prove the elements of the charge.
Subsequent to his submissions, Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) prosecutor Patrice Henry requested a date to present written submissions.
The matter was later adjourned until September 30th, when those submissions are to be presented to the court.