Ganga Singh alleges no forensic analysis by Lindquist on WASA payout

THE Bob Lindquist Report on WASA’s $51.5 million payout to Water Farms, as far as Opposition Chief Whip Ganga Singh is concerned, was not a forensic exercise but a documentary review.

Singh, in publicly condemning the report at a UNC Local Government Elections campaign meeting in Rio Claro on Wednesday night, called on Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Geoffrey Henderson, to track down $16 million unaccounted for in the Lindquist report. A study of the report, according to the Caroni East MP, revealed that the sum of $16 million had gone into a certain bank account, which Lindquist’s report failed to track down.

Addressing a fairly large crowd of UNC supporters, Singh said Lindquist could not have discovered any impropriety because he did not engage in a forensic examination of the accounts. Lindquist, a forensic accountant, cleared WASA of any impropriety in the Authority’s $51.5 million legal settlement with Water Farms. His 26-page report was laid in the Senate on Tuesday by Attorney General Glenda Morean. But reading from the report’s terms of reference, Ganga quoted Lindquist as stating: “We were engaged to review available documentation and to speak to personnel at WASA pertaining to the settlement amount paid by WASA to Water Farms in order to advance the reasons by WASA, in advancing the settlement amount and to conclude whether it was deemed reasonable. We did not perform an audit review with respect to WASA or Water Farms.”

Singh said that it was therefore logical to conclude that Lindquist engaged in a documentary review and not a forensic exercise. He maintained that as part of the payout, $16 million had been deposited into a certain bank account. He asked: “Why has he (Lindquist) not followed the trail of the money?” Singh said he will call on DPP Henderson to examine the report and act accordingly.