Citizen’s Security Prog. Investigation… Rohee: ‘Let the IDB deal with that’
- says Khemraj Rai resigned before investigation started
Coordinator of the Citizen’s Security Programme, Khemraj Rai, resigned before fraud allegations against him began. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which is funding the US$19 million programme, has asked its Office of Institutional Integrity to investigate claims of fraud leveled against Mr Rai. Contacted for comment on the matter, all Rohee would say is: “Let the IDB deal with that.”
Khemraj Rai
While Rohee told this newspaper that Rai resigned before the investigations began, he could not give the date off-hand. Mr Rai’s resignation was never made public. The IDB’s Resident Representative to Guyana, Sophiem Makonnen, could not be reached for comment on the status of the investigations. This newspaper understands that IDB investigators were recently in the country. Investigations began into how Rai was spending the IDB funds when contractor Mr Viddiadat Jaisari discovered that millions of dollars were deposited and withdrawn from an account with his name but without his knowledge. Jaisari of Number 7 Village, West Coast Berbice, was contracted by the Ministry of Home Affairs as a construction supervisor from November 2011 and was being paid a monthly salary of $250,000. Jaisari told the IDB investigators that Mr Rai was bidding for projects using his company’s name, but he never knew of it. Further, he said that he never knew an account bearing his name existed through which Mr. Rai could withdraw funds as a joint signatory to the account. Jaisari claimed that he never signed the documents bearing his signature. The documents included bids for the supply of various appliances, like TV sets, microwave ovens, freezers and other items, along with office furniture, all under the Citizen Security Programme. In most cases, the bid price came in just short of the amount required for special approval and so the contracts awarded under Jaisari never came in for close scrutiny. In one of his emails to IDB investigators seen by Kaieteur News, Mr Jaisari claimed that Mr Rai was issuing cheques to his (Jaisari’s) name and as a joint account holder, Rai was himself collecting these cheques. Jaisari was fired last year July. It was at that time that he said he went to the bank to get a statement of his accounts and realized that some $7 million was deposited and withdrawn from the account using his name. The provision of goods and services ranged from building pavilions to building and furnishing centres, all under the Citizen Security Programme. Under IDB-funded projects, individual companies/entities go through an administrative process that permits the accused firms and/or individuals to respond to the allegations pursuant to the Sanctions Procedures. Sanctions are meant to prevent and deter fraud and corruption in Group-financed activities according to the IDB.
