By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
A MAGISTRATE yesterday ordered the Crown to establish that the user name purportedly used by former Ministry of Finance accounts clerk James Anwar Johnson was actually the user name connected to a local business receiving over thousands in unauthorised payments.
The order by Magistrate Ambrose Armbrister came after lead Crown attorney Terry Archer sought to exhibit certain documents containing Johnson's purported user tag 'FINANJO', which ultimately facilitated certain alleged unauthorised payments at the ministry.
Those documents, which the accused's attorney Bjorn Ferguson maintained amounted to "documentary hearsay", were hard copies of certain files retrieved from the ministry's system by its Director of Information Technology June Collie.
According to Magistrate Armbrister, after being approached by the police who requested certain information from her, Ms Collie conducted a query on the ministry's system and retrieved certain information, which she then uploaded into Microsoft Excel.
That information contained the user name 'FINANJO'; the first three letters represent an abbreviation for finance, while the letter's 'AN' and 'JO' purportedly represent the first two letters of Anwar and Johnson.
According to Ms Collie, when the ministry assigns user names to various employees, it employs a standard formula for their generation, that is, the department abbreviation, followed by the first two letters of the employee's first name and the first two letters of the surname.
Ms Collie said in the event there are two employees with names that would result in identical user tags, she said the ministry would opt to use "another character" out of the first name to differentiate the two.
However, Magistrate Armbrister noted that while the user tag 'FINANJO' suggests a forename beginning with the letters 'AN', on the charge sheet, Johnson's first name is listed as James, and not Anwar, the latter of which would thus be his middle name.
Thus, the magistrate said the Crown will have to establish a "nexus" between Johnson's former user name and the person currently on trial, either by direct evidence -- for example, the person who assigned the user name testifying that 'FINANJO' was in fact Johnson's user name -- or indirect evidence.
Johnson is standing trial alleging that he defrauded the ministry of over half a million dollars within a five-month period.
The St Andrew's Beach Estates resident stood before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt in August of last year facing 11 counts of falsification of accounts for his alleged actions between December 2016 and April 2017.
It is alleged that Johnson, being an accounts clerk at the Ministry of Finance, falsified the payment records of VMMS Business Service from December 15, 2016, to April 5, 2017, purporting to show that VMMS Business Service was entitled to receive payments totaling $530,377.67.
Johnson was also charged with 10 counts of stealing by reason of employment. He is accused of being concerned with others and stealing a total of $445,996.42 in cash from the ministry between December 21, 2016, and March 31, 2017, which he had access to by virtue of his employment.
Johnson also faced one count of attempted stealing by reason of employment for allegedly attempting to steal $41,115 from the ministry on April 5, 2017.
In November, he was arraigned before Magistrate Samuel McKinney on an additional two counts of falsification of accounts and as well as two counts of stealing by reason of employment for his alleged actions between November 25, 2016, and April 5, 2017.
It is alleged that on both November 25, 2016, and April 5, 2017, while serving as an accounts clerk at the MOF, Johnson falsified the payment records of VMMS Business Service, purporting to show that it was entitled to receive two separate payments of of $37,500 and $69,996 respectively.
It is further alleged that on both November 25, 2016, and April 5, 2017, Johnson stole, by reason of his employment, $37,500 and $69,996, the property of the Bahamas government.
Yesterday, however, Mr Archer indicated that the prosecution would be withdrawing counts 14 and 26 against the accused, which dealt with falsification of accounts and attempted stealing by reason of employment.
Johnson now faces 24 charges for alleged actions between December 2016 and April 2017.
Johnson has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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