Harbour Bridge Board recommends actions against persons culpable in Asphalt Plant racket

Jan 15, 2021 News

Garden of Eden Asphalt Plant

Kaieteur News – Following the exposure and audit of a racket at the Garden of Eden Asphalt Plant, the Board of Directors of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC) have recommended that action be taken against those persons found culpable in the issue.
According to the Minister of Public Works (MoPW), Juan Edghill, the Board has prepared an independent report to his ministry. Edghill told the media on Wednesday that he and his team are yet to examine the recommendations and actions in detail, but will aim at doing so shortly.
The Board issued this independent report after a specially-organized team, appointed by Minister Edghill, had conducted an audit of accounts and operations at the Asphalt Plant.
Kaieteur News had exposed, in a series of articles, the damning findings of the report. Some of these included a no cap on credit granted at the asphalt plant; that the asphalt sold at Garden of Eden went ten miles away from the plant to be weighed, despite the fact that there a scale was located next door; that the plant spent $71M on transportation in five years when the plant could have purchased it’s on vehicle; and that the Minister of Public Infrastructure had overpaid millions for asphalt due to poor record keeping.
Most shockingly, the audit had revealed that the General Manager (GM) of the DHBC, Rawlston Adams, had used $900,000 of company funds to present himself a bracelet.
At the handing over ceremony of the report containing the findings in December, head of the team, Chateram Ramdihal, had stated that, “We found that the Harbour Bridge went about buying gifts for their staff during International Men’s Day November of 2019. It was the Board’s request that any gifts purchased must be approved by the Board.”
However, those purchases were not given a stamp of approval by the Board.
Ramdihal had added that, “We came across an alarming gift to the value of $897,000, a bracelet that was purchased for the General Manager and approved by the General Manager.”
He had explained that in normal circumstances, approval for such a large purchase comes directly from the Board. If no Board is present, the matter is escalated to the Public Infrastructure Minister who was David Patterson at the time. However, Adams bypassed all these levels and presented himself with the high-priced gift.
Gifts were also said to have been purchased for other members of staff to commemorate the day, but no details were given to outline what those were and the costs.