A businessman from central Trinidad and four employees of the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation (CTTRC) appeared in court yesterday, accused of conspiring to defraud the local government corporation of $149,500.
CTTRC CEO Carol Dyal; Barry Samaroo, a chief engineer; Maniram Mohess, a county superintendent; Ian Gokool, a road officer; and Mahase Sookai, a businessman, were not called upon to plead to the fraud charge when they appeared before Magistrate Christine Charles in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates' Court.
Accompanied in court by their relatives, the group stood silently in the prisoner enclosure of the court as the charge was being read.
Asked for their opinion on bail, police prosecutors asked Charles to attach conditions to the bail requiring the accused to report weekly to police for the duration of their case. Charles refused the request and noted that none of the five had criminal records. She then opted to regularise the $300,000 bail each was granted by a justice of the peace while they were in police custody.
"The sum of bail fixed seems to be reasonable and if they decide not to comply the consequences will be obvious," Charles said.
The group is accused of conspiring to defraud the corporation through the installation of outdoor exercise equipment at the San Pablo Recreation Ground and the Todd's Road Activity Centre. Sookai's company was allegedly awarded the contracts and was paid although no work had been done. The offence is alleged to have occurred on September 20, last year.
The contract was awarded during the 2014/15 fiscal year, but cheques and other documents related to this were seized by Fraud Squad officers at the CTTRC last November. On November 25, Fraud Squad officers questioned senior employees in the accounting department as they searched the compound and seized financial records, including cheques and files of contractors contracted by the corporation, as well as other documentary evidence associated with alleged corrupt payments to certain contractors.
Last Friday, police went to the CTTRC office, along Railway Road, Couva, and held the employees who were being investigated for corruption.
The charge was laid by Insp Ramdhanie Dipchand of the Fraud Squad. The group will reappear in the Couva Magistrates Court on Thursday.