Harbour bridge company approved $504,000 jewellery purchase for Patterson
Documents from the Demerara Harbour Bridge Company and its Asphalt Plant show that two days before the birthday of former Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson in 2017, a total of $504,000 was approved for the purchase of a gold hand band and tie pin for him.
However, it is unclear if the then minister collected the items. This newspaper reached out to Patterson through calls and messages to no avail as all went unanswered although he had read the messages. Patterson is now the Chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.
A requisition to purchase the items, dated 2nd of May 2017 describes the items as a hand band (moveable) and a tie pin which had respective price tags of $424,400 and $78,300.
The executing agency was listed as the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation and the monies were to be payable by the same agency to King’s Jewellery World.
Certifying that the “funds are available under the subheads affected to enable payment to be made” was the storekeeper of the Asphalt Plant whose signature could not be deciphered. Approval of the sums came from the Asphalt Plant’s General Manager who described what the funds were to be used for as “Minister Patterson’s Birth Anniversary”.
The information on the purchase of the personal items from state funds comes shortly after an investigation into the operations of the Asphalt Plant (AP) revealed that General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB) Rawlston Adams last year approved the purchase of a bracelet worth nearly $900,000 for himself with money from the agency. The gift to himself was to mark the occasion of International Men’s Day.
The team, led by Chartered Accountant Chateram Ramdihal, pointed out in the report that the Board of Directors, at a meeting held in August 2016, had enunciated a policy that gifts, donations and staff incentives be approved by the Board.
When Adams had been contacted by this newspaper, he declined to comment saying that the Board would issue a statement and management of the DHB and AP would comment after reviewing the report by Ramdihal and team.
There has been no statement from the management on the issue to date.
And while Adams told this newspaper that the DHB and AP provided a response in the report and it was played down, the report pointed out that justification from management was that “Gifts were given to all men within the organization. This is the standard practice in the organization,” and that bills and receipts of the purchases were provided.
However, the disparity in cost of the General Manager’s bracelet compared to the other men was a whopping $887,000 as the report pointed out that “gifts were also given to all other men within the Corporation, to an approximate value of G$10,000 each, to mark the occasion of International Men’s Day.”
Asked if he would return the bracelet to the state if it was found that it was improperly procured, he had repeated that he would “provide any information on the matter if asked.”
The report said that due to the lack of an independent approval system, “the following observation can be deemed to be misuse of the (Asphalt) Plant funds for personal gain.”
Underscoring that there are consequences for acting outside of the law, Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill had said that he would have met with Adams to discuss the circumstances surrounding the purchases.