The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AS the criminal trial of Adrian Gibson and others continued in court yesterday, a senior Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) employee testified that she found it “peculiar” a landscaping company earned over $500,000 from the corporation in 2020.

Dian Saunders-Adderley’s comments came as she continued her testimony on the initial findings from her audit of vendors contracted by the corporation under the Minnis administration.

The audit covered vendors the corporation engaged from 2017 to 2021.

According to the WSC assistant general manager, 63 vendors were paid over $250,000, while 26 received payments exceeding $500,000. One of these was a landscaping company later identified as Adams Landscaping.

“That was very peculiar as to how would the Water and Sewerage Corporation have a landscaping company making over $500,00 at the corporation in 2020,” she told the court yesterday.

This finding prompted her to scrutinise the file further to ensure she “had a proper understanding”.

Mrs Saunders-Adderley said she reacted similarly when reviewing vendor payments over $250,000, noting that two other landscaping companies— Elite Maintenance and Baha Maintenance — were also on that list.

She said she found it “equally peculiar” that three landscaping companies were attached to the same project.

“The name of that project was not a landscaping project. It said tank painting, again another peculiar piece of information,” she said.

When asked how many tanks were involved in the project, she said there were five — two located at Windsor Field and three at the BPL’s Blue Hills facility.

However, she claimed that neither the Blue Hill high-level tank nor the Winton tank were painted.

In response, acting director of public prosecutions Cordell Frazier questioned how the costs could be justified for the $770,000-plus project, given that two of the tanks were not painted.

“If you have a scope that expresses a certain number of tanks and you subtract some of the tanks, it’s reasonable to conclude that it would cost less,” the witness replied.

Ms Frazier asked the witness if she had ever received bids regarding the tanks project based on her investigation.

Mrs Saunders-Adderley replied, “No.”

“They were not official bids. There were quotes that were submitted,” she said, naming RL Pools and Gunite Pools as the companies that provided the quotes.

When asked if her investigations revealed how the companies awarded contracts were notified of the project, she said there was no record of that.

Mr Gibson, the Long Island MP, is on trial alongside Elwood Donaldson Jr, the former WSC general manager, Joan Knowles, Peaches Farquharson, and Jerome Missick.

He faces charges related to his tenure as WSC executive chairman involving his alleged failure to declare his interest in contracts awarded by the WSC.

The defence team includes Mr Damian Gomez KC, Mr Murrio Ducille KC, Ian Cargill, Bryan Bastian, Ryan Eve, and Raphael Moxey.

Meanwhile, the Crown’s legal team comprises Ms Cordell Frazier, Karine MacVean and others.