The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A DEFENCE lawyer yesterday accused Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) general manager Robert Deal of “shucking, jiving, and BSing” during cross-examination in the criminal trial of Long Island MP Adrian Gibson and others.

Geoffrey Farquharson’s comment came as Damian Gomez, KC continued cross-examining the witness about his involvement in the WSC’s tank painting project.

Mr Deal previously claimed that he was not directly in the project but had signed documents relating to it, namely the job jacket.

When asked if the job jacket was prepared three weeks after the contract was signed, Mr Deal acknowledged that this appeared to be the case.

Mr Gomez then questioned whether this was standard procedure.

Mr Deal explained that officials preferred to receive the job jacket either before the contracts were signed or as soon as possible afterwards.

“Once a contract is issued, normally a contractor has to provide some initial documentation to the corporation because very soon after, we give a request for the mobilisation of payments,” he added.

When asked if the job jacket could have been issued earlier, Mr Deal agreed that it would have been better.

He had previously testified that he initially removed two tanks from the project proposal as they were unsuitable for painting.

Mr Gomez referred to Mr Deal’s responsibility for producing weekly and monthly reports and asked whether his reports included the five tanks.

However, Mr Deal said he was not reporting on the tanks but rather “on the reports from the engineering planning and department”.

When asked if the department’s reports were related to the five tanks, Mr Deal confirmed that details were included in the weekly and monthly reports.

Mr Gomez asked the witness if, based on the reports submitted to him, he had realised at some point that the project’s job jacket, which included details on four tanks, were inaccurately reported.

To which Mr Deal responded: “When they prepared the job jacket and it’s critical to note they indicated that it’s phase one and my understanding is they had a view as to why they called it phase one and there would be some future phase.”

Mr Farquharson, one of the defence attorneys, raised a strong objection to Mr Deal’s testimony, accusing him of being dilatory.

“He’s in here talking foolishness when they’re trying to ensure that everyone in this court knows what is was that happened,” the attorney argued. “The procedure was the board made a recommendation, then authorised a series of contracts, a job jacket was prepared so that the contractors could be paid and he amended what the board said with not authority.”

However, Director of Public Prosecutions Cordell Frazier rejected the objection, insisting the witness had been answering the questions.

“Because Mr Farquharson comes in and out, that may be a disadvantage for him,” she said. “He does not know what has been asked, what has been answered and the position as to what are the facts.”

Nonetheless, Mr Gomez did not relent, suggesting that the WSC’s engineering department had made an error on the job jacket.

However, Mr Deal disagreed, saying they had received instructions from the board.

“They prepared a phase one job jacket and they were proceeding with that,” he added.

The trial, which is focused on allegations of misconduct and failure to declare interests in government contracts, continues with Mr Gibson, former WSC GM Elwood Donaldson Jr, and others facing charges related to their roles in awarding contracts during Mr Gibson’s tenure.

The defence team includes Mr Gomez, Mr Farquharson, Murrio Ducille KC, Ian Cargill, Bryan Bastian, Ryan Eve, and Raphael Moxey. The Crown’s legal team includes Ms Frazier, Karine MacVean, and others.

Senior Justice Cheryl-Grant Thompson is the presiding judge over the case.