The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A SENIOR manager of the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) denied a defence attorney’s suggestion yesterday that she made the wrong calculations when estimating the cost of painting WSC tanks.

Deidre Taylor, head of the WSC’s engineering and planning department, defended her calculations under cross-examination from attorney Raphael Moxey in Adrian Gibson’s corruption trial.

Mr Moxey represents Peaches Farquharson, one of five people on trial.

Last week, Mrs Taylor testified that she estimated the cost of painting water tanks to be between $164,000 and $213,000 after WSC’s former general manager, Elwood Donaldson, another defendant, had asked her about the work’s cost.

Ms Taylor said she estimated the costs to be between $8.18 per square foot and $10.65 per square foot.

She said the price did not include VAT and agreed that the total square footage of the tank’s painted area was around 48,800 square feet.

“If you multiply $8.18 by 48,000 square feet, I’m going to suggest to you mathematically, it’s $399,184,” Mr Moxey said. “I’m going to suggest to you that the minimum price the corporation should’ve paid would’ve been $399,184.”

Mrs Taylor disagreed, saying her calculations were not based on those exact measurements.

“I would not have done a straight 8.18 and 10.65 as part of the total cost of painting the tanks. You are dealing with two different specifications,” she said.

Mr Moxey asserted that based on her calculations, the maximum price to paint one tank was $519,720.

“In fact, the corporation paid $235,000 to paint the tanks,” he added. “That is a savings of your lower estimate, $164,184. Do you agree with the corporation saved on your lower estimate? That $164,000 represents a discount of 41 per cent. Do you agree?”

Mrs Taylor again disagreed.

“I have Blue Hill Windsor paint area equals 20,096 square feet,” she said.

Said Mr Moxey: “That is incorrect because the painted area is 48,800 square feet, as you just agreed to me.”

Mr Moxey was pushed to move on from the topic because the witness answered the question repeatedly.

When asked if the tanks were refurbished to the WSC’s standards, Mrs Taylor said they were satisfactorily done.

She will return for continued cross-examination at the next hearing.

Mr Gibson is charged with Mr Donaldson Jr, Ms Farquharson, Rashae Gibson, Joan Knowles and Jerome Missick.

Together, the group face 98 charges, including conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, fraud, receiving and money laundering.

Damian Gomez, KC, Murrio Ducille, KC, Bryan Bastian, Mr Moxey, Christina Galanos, Ian Cargill and Donald Saunders represent the defendants.

Ms Cordell Frazier, Cashena Thompson and Karine MacVean are the Crown’s prosecutors.