Patterson, Adams charged with defrauding harbour bridge company
Former Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson and the former General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC), Rawlston Adams, were yesterday released on $200,000 bail, each, after being charged with defrauding the DHBC.
The two men made their appearance at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Courts where Senior Magistrate Leron Daly read the joint, indictable charge to them. The charge states that between November 18, 2016, and February 1, 2018, at Georgetown, they conspired with each other and with other persons unknown to defraud the DHBC of $162,635,015 funds of the DHBC 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 from the said DHBC Asphalt Plant account could not be used.
They were released on $200,000 bail each and the matter was adjourned until February 15. Attorney-at-law Glenn Hanoman represented Adams while attorney-at-law Ronald Burch-Smith leads the defence team for Patterson.
The charge is in relation to an ongoing 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, where it was 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 done, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MoPI) 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 MoPI to go ahead with the work. Patterson’s then ministry had defended the singlesourcing 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.