The Attorney General’s Chamber last night decried as counterfeit a voucher purporting to be for the payment of Grenadian attorney Dr Francis Alexis for services being rendered to the Guyana Government.
The image of the voucher was posted on the Facebook page of former Attorney General Anil Nandlall and the Attorney General’s Chambers/Ministry of Legal Affairs (AGC/MOLA) last asked for it to be removed.
The voucher contained the figure of $72.8 million
A statement from the Chambers said “The AGC/MOLA, frontally deny and reject out of hand such a payment was ever made. By no stretch of imagination, this document resembles or even comes close to the Payment Vouchers utilized by Government agencies. Some of the discrepancies detected in the document are not limited to but are as follows:
* The AGC/MOLA do not use a ‘ ref #’
* The amount quoted by the document is substantially inaccurate and misleading.
* As stated before, the document is not authentic since there is a standard payment voucher utilized by Government agencies
* The cheque number is not related to any payment for Dr. Alexis.”
AGC/MOLA said that many social media users, who are acquainted with the Government’s Payment System, can easily detect the irregularities and inconsistencies with the document.
“Moreover, it is imperative to note that the two officers named that are attached to the AGC/MOLA appearing on the document cannot carry out such a transaction. Mrs. Tamika Barkoye, cannot approve such payment. Also, Ms. Simone Allen does not make payments of any sort”, the statement said.
It added that this must be seen as another blatant attack on professionals of the public service attached to the AGC/MOLA.
“The circulation of this voucher along with initial speculation associated with Dr. Alexis being retained by the AGC/MOLA is calculated to be entirely mischievous and is highly unacceptable.
“Under the former administration, The AGC/MOLA would have expended hefty sums of monies to retain lawyers from within the Caribbean region to bolster their legal teams. Examples include the Elections Petition Case of 2015, the lawyer being Abe Dabdoub of Jamaica and Seenauth Jairam SC of Trinidad and Tobago in the Budget- Cuts case to name a few”, the statement added.
