Petrojam trial | ‘Undue influence’

Petrojam’s chief financial officer (CFO) testified on Thursday that his relationship with fraud accused Floyd Grindley broke down after the former general manager of the state-owned refinery asked him to do something that was not right.

Delroy Brown further testified that when he emailed Grindley registering his objection, the ex-general manager replied using expletives.

“In my email, I pointed out that in my working career that this was the first time undue influence was brought to bear asking me to do something that was not correct,” he said during his evidence-in-chief in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

When questioned by King’s Counsel Caroline Hay, who is prosecuting the case, as to the reason for the email, Brown testified that Grindley had asked him to make a contribution to the Diabetes Association.

He was then asked what his relationship with Grindley was like at that point, to which he replied, “Beyond June 2017, [after] I sent that email, saying I was disappointed with the use of expletives, ... the relationship get a little bit, ahm, I wouldn’t say cold, but it wasn’t as I had experienced with other managers.”

The witness did not go into further details with this line of questioning as the trial came to an abrupt end after the prosecutor requested to speak to the defence and Parish Judge Maxine Ellis in chambers.

Grindley and former Petrojam Chairman Dr Perceval Singh are being tried on several fraud charges in relation to overseas travel allowances.

Singh is alleged to have submitted claims amounting to US$73,620 for overseas travel he did not make. Grindley is alleged to have aided and abetted the ex-chairman in the process.

On Monday, the CFO said that he observed irregularities on two separate occasions with at least six donation requests for projects at high schools, primary schools, and a citizen association, which were submitted to him to effect payments between November 2016 and July 2017.

He said in the first instance, the requests came to him without board approval, and when they were resubmitted, the payees’ names on the cheques did not match those in the resolution.

Consequently, the executive said, he cancelled the cheques and prepared new ones with the correct names.

He also testified that Grindley had asked him to pay the contractors for the projects, but he told him that he could only make payments to the institution named in the board resolution.

When he resumed his testimony on Thursday, the witness indicated that he had only signed off on four cheques.

Brown told the court that the cheque for McCook’s Pen Citizens Association was cancelled and a new cheque was prepared for Sydenham Citizens’ Association, which had made a request for a donation in a similar amount.

At the same time, he testified that the cheque would have required the board’s approval with a resolution attached but that that request bypassed the board.

Asked by Hay if he had shared his observation with anyone, Brown said he told the public relations officer and she told him certain things.

Brown will continue giving evidence when the trial resumes on Monday.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com