Defence counsel grill CFO in Petrojam travel allowance fraud trial
Published:Tuesday | January 9, 2024 | 12:11 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
The defence attorneys representing former Petrojam General Manager (GM) Floyd Grindley and former board chair Dr Perceval Singh yesterday further cross-examined Delroy Brown, chief financial officer (CFO), during a recall of witnesses.
The men are being tried in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on fraud charges stemming from alleged fraudulent claims for overseas travel allowances amounting to more than US$70,000 (J$10,801,609.01).
Both Grindley and Singh have maintained their innocence, pleading not guilty again yesterday.
Singh is alleged to have submitted claims between November 2016 and July 2018 for overseas travel he did not make, while allegedly being aided and abetted by Grindley.
King’s Counsel KD Knight and Bianca Samuels are representing Grindley, while attorneys-at-law Bert Samuels and Matthew Hyatt are representing Singh.
Yesterday, when Brown took the stand, the Bert Samuels was keen to find out how much he knew of exhibit 39, an alleged US$10,506.75 (J$1,621,282.93) reimbursement for a surprise birthday party.
Samuels asked Brown, “Are you aware of reimbursements made to Dr Singh?”
“Yes,” Brown said.
“Made to pay back for a surprise birthday party for him?” Samuels asked.
“Yes. I was asked to pull the reimbursement documents,” Brown said.
He was soon after shown a document and told to take a careful look.
Samuels also asked the CFO, if there was a reimbursement, if there would be a paper trail for it.
Brown responded in the affirmative and told the court that an invoice would normally be submitted as evidence.
THE PROCESS
“(The) authorising officer would prove that the payments were sent to the finance and accounting department and then goes through a process … the supervisor for the general books would also review that document,” Brown said.
Samuels said, “Do you destroy records such as that in the last seven years?”
Brown said, “No.”
Going back to the surprise birthday party reimbursement, Samuels asked the CFO if in the last six months he had been requested to pull that record.
Brown told the court that a request came through the general manager’s (GM) office and he asked a staff member to pull it.
“It was scanned and emailed to me and I forwarded it to the GM… I did not examine the document,” Brown said.
Samuels then asked the CFO if he saw any document where Dr Singh was requesting reimbursement of $10,506.75.
It was at this juncture that Brown appeared to have difficulty recollecting.
“I can’t recall,” Brown said.
Samuels said, “Did you see anything that Dr Singh was making a request for reimbursement?”
“I can’t recall,” Brown said.
“That’s not helping mon… If you saw it, you wouldn’t have forgotten it,” Samuels said.
“Yes. I didn’t see it,” Brown said.
“Petrojam doesn’t have it in its records?” Samuels asked.
“I don’t recall,” Brown said.
Samuels then asked the CFO if any officer at Petrojam have had to pay for their surprise party and again he could not recall.
Parish Court Judge Maxine Ellis is presiding over the matter.
Samuels had earlier made a formal application for disclosure of records indicating reimbursement of funds in the aforementioned sum where then GM Winston Watson on March 26, 2019 said “our records indicate that you were reimbursed funds for expenditure”.
He told the court that the defence requested disclosure on three occasions.
The prosecution said as far as they are concerned, they have responded on all requests, the last of which was made on January 7, 2024, which was the extent of the information forthcoming from Petrojam.
The trial was adjourned until Tuesday.