“162 Million Sole sourcing contract” put Patterson and Adams on bail

TWO senior functionaries who served under the previous government were Monday placed on
$200,000 bail each for alleged conspiracy to defraud the government of over 162 million.
Former Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson and Rawlston Adams, former General
Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge, were jointly charged before being placed on bond in
the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court when they appeared before magistrate Leron Daly.
“Mr. Patterson was charged with conspiracy to defraud and that charge is indictable which
means that he wasn’t required to plead and that the matter has been put down for the 15 th of
February,” his attorney, Mr. Nigel Hughes told reporters earlier today
The defence team for the two accused comprises, Mr. Burch Smith, former National Security
Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan and Mr. Hughes.
The latter said that it&’s important that the nature of the accusation be understood, labelling the
charges against Patterson and Adams as “malicious allegations”.
“The background of these allegations is that a foreign government approached the government of
Guyana, specifically an agency of the Ministry that Mr. Patterson headed requesting their interest
in providing services to the Government of Guyana on the feasibility of the Demerara Harbour
Bridge,” the defence counsel explained.
“The feasibility study,” Hughes said, was conducted and “there are parts of it being used by this
government as they move forward. So, this matter and the institution of the charges seem clearly
to be political rather than legal.”
The matter has been adjourned for February 15.
Attempts to interview Patterson, currently Chairman of the parliamentary Public Accounts
Committee (PAC), was futile. Hughes advised his clients to ignore media queries regarding the charges whether their questions are slanted politically or legally. He also wants media operatives
to heed his counsel to his clients.

Former General Manger of Demerara Harbour Bridge, Rawlston Adams

Hughes and his team are mystified about the prosecution’s case.
“We have no idea what the prosecution is contending. What I can say is that there are alleging
that he (Patterson) conspired with Mr. Adams to defraud the government of a $162M.”
This sum, the noted legal luminary said, was the cost of the feasibility study approved by
Cabinet.
“The fact is that the services were paid for by the government directly to the contractor, so I
don’t know how Mr. Patterson could have benefited from it or could have conspired to have
benefited from it and more entirely the entire feasibility report was not initiated by him but by a
foreign government expressing an interest in providing those services to Guyana,” the puzzled
defence attorney explained.
The charges against both Patterson and Adams were brought by the Special Organised Crime
Unit (SOCU) after they were both questioned last Friday.
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 single-sourcing 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.

Several opposition coalition APNU+AFC party supporters turned up at the court to offer moral
support to the embattled former Government Minister.