Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 13, 2010 News
… says no major discrepancies uncovered in records
Region One Chairman, Fermain Singh, yesterday attempted to lay to rest suspicions of fraud in his region and to address the issue of missing records.
Little over a month ago it came to light that the toll records for the Matarkai Neighbourhood Democratic Council going back almost three years, were missing.
Fermain Singh, said that the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) had received and reviewed some of the outstanding records; however those for 2007 had still not been located.
According to Singh those records that were looked at, however, did not reveal any indications of overspending. The figures that were eventually deposited into the NDC’s bank account matched those on the books for the area and the sum of $6.6M was banked on the NDC’s behalf as revenues generated.
There was also speculation surrounding the matter of $4.5M that was apparently paid out to a senior official for works that were never carried out.
Singh put those concerns to rest when he said that after reviewing the records it was his opinion there was no fraud involved on the part of that official. Apparently it was assumed that the official was paid the sum of money to perform works on the road which, considering the state of the roads, it was naturally assumed that no work had been done.
Singh explained however that the almost 75km of road in question was in constant need of repairs. It crossed a hilly region and was not capped with asphalt and as a result rainfall had a serious effect on it.
He said that if there is a heavy shower, by the time the water had proceeded a few hundred feet down the hillside it would have generated considerable force and as such tended to wash away portions of the roadway.
Capping the road was not feasible either as cracks or potholes would allow the running water to undercut and destabilize the capping material.
Building a road under such conditions would require a sizeable investment on the part of the government and since that was not forthcoming, the residents of the district contended themselves with repairing the roads as necessary.
Singh noted that this was where the $4.5M came into play; apparently the funds were not paid to the official, but were used to purchase the fuel and road patching materials for every patching exercise that was undertaken on the roads.
The official would only have received a maintenance fee in return for his services but the materials and any repairs to his machinery would have been covered by the district.
It was after reviewing these records that Singh said that there was in his opinion no fraud involved in the matter.
The only problem that Singh had with the conduct of the NDC was the fact that the latter did not seek approval from the RDC before embarking on the works. Justified though the NDC may have been, Singh noted that the NDC still has an obligation to inform the RDC of any works that it may embark on, emergency or otherwise.
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