The Region Two administration did not engage the police on the alleged theft of a quantity of fuel by two workers, after they requested dismissal rather than face criminal charges.

This is according to Region Two chairman Parmanand Persaud, who told this newspaper yesterday that the incident was reported to the Public Service Commis-sion (PSC) and the two persons, a driver employed there for more than 20 years and a recently-appointed overseer, were sent on leave by the region pending an investigation by the PSC. He said that the regional administration recommended that the two workers be dismissed.

The men were allegedly caught discharging the fuel at the yard of a rice farmer, who is allegedly related to one of them, on March 7. The fuel was intended to be dropped off at Lima, to be used for works on projects undertaken by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) there. However, the men had stopped at the yard of the rice farmer in neighbouring La Belle Alliance, when they were caught by the regional authorities. They were subsequently called into a meeting with the Regional Chairman, his deputy and other officials of the administration, the chairman noted yesterday.

“[From] my information, they drop it [the fuel] off at a house… and no one purchased the fuel … when we got there no one was home,” he said. According to Persaud, after discussing the issue with the two men, they requested that the matter not engage the police. The regional chairman also stated that he did not believe the matter warranted the involvement of the police. “If the police get involve, it would take long and they (the police) would have to hold the fuel and …it would be too long,” he said. Persaud added that the matter was dealt with departmentally.

In a letter published in this newspaper yesterday, AFC councillor for Region Two Archie Winslow Cordis stated that at a recent meeting of the Regional Democratic Council, he requested information on why the men were not placed before the courts, noting that the two employees would have been charged for simple larceny under Section 66 of the Summary Jurisdiction Offences Act. He also said that at the meeting both the chairman and his deputy refused to divulge the name of the individual in whose yard the drum of fuel was found. According to Cordis, information in the public suggests that she is related to a senior regional official. 

But Persaud did not provide a direct answer when asked whether any member of the administration is related to the intended buyer of the fuel but instead he reiterated that “no one purchased the fuel as yet… when we went there no one was home.”