Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 06, 2012 News
The National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA)’s Field Auditor, who exposed alleged corrupt practices by senior officials of the government entity, was probably on the ball, Chairman of the NDIA Board Dharamkumar Seeraj said yesterday.
He confirmed that there have been procedural breaches at the entity. However, the Auditor General’s Office would have to determine if those breaches and other malpractices could be classified as corruption, he added.
In a report compiled by the Field Auditor and leaked to the media, NDIA’s Chief Executive Officer, Lionel Wordsworth and the Senior Section Engineer, Aneel Chowbay, were accused of being involved in corrupt practices. The Field Auditor recommended the duo’s dismissal.
The report was addressed to Seeraj in his capacity as Chairman of the Board and carbon copied to President Donald Ramotar, a move that angered Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, under whose portfolio the NDIA falls.
The report speaks of conflict of interest and sole sourcing of services such as the supply of fuel and the awarding of contracts to relatives of senior NDIA operatives, in breach of national procurement procedures.
NDIA deemed the report as mischievous, misleading and aimed at damaging the image of the Authority for personal gains and aspirations.
Because the auditor skipped protocol by sending the damning report to Ramotar he was subsequently sent on leave.
According to Seeraj, he is currently reviewing Wordsworth’s response to the allegations in the report. He noted that from what he has reviewed thus far it shows that there were procedural breaches at NDIA.
The Chairman said that since he is not an auditor his likely course of action would be to send the document to the Auditor General’s Office to determine if fraud did occur.
He emphasized that it is unfortunate that this investigation did not follow the normal procedure from the inception. Seeraj noted that the auditor should have sent the document to the department head to respond to the issues.
Region Four Chairman and member of NDIA Board, Clement Corlette, also criticized the move by the auditor to send the initial report to Ramotar, bypassing the Minister of Agriculture and other Directors of the NDIA Board.
Corlette said that he was satisfied that the remit of the auditor to investigate areas of activity assigned is legal, but he is not satisfied that the officer can properly send his report and findings straight to the President.
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