DANHAI Williams, whose business and political activities have been dogged by suspicion and controversy, was yesterday granted a $10-million bail when he appeared in the Half Way Tree Resident Magistrate’s Court to answer 87 charges of fraud in connection with the corruption scandal at the government’s shelter project, Operation PRIDE.

Six of Williams’ alleged accomplices, whose scams are alleged to have accounted for over $450 million of taxpayers’ money, were each offered bail of $5 million and, like Williams, are to reappear in court on December 12.

The six are:

* Carl Kirkland, an employee of Williams’ Danwill Construction Company;

* Warren Sibbles, the former director of technical services at the National Housing Development Corporation;

* Wayne Nash, chairman of the St Benedicts Heights Provident Society in St Andrew;

* Eujenny Porter, representative of the Melbrook Heights Provident Society, St Andrew;

* Donovan Hill, a member of the Riverton City Provident Society, Kingston;

* and Dwight Dawkins, chairman of the Morant Farm Provident Society, St Thomas.

Resident Magistrate Martin Gayle ordered this group to surrender their travel documents and report to the police three times a week — Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

However, Williams had no travel ban placed on him when the court accepted his lawyer’s (Jacqueline Samuel-Brown’s) argument that he be allowed to travel for business purposes and to visit his ill mother abroad. The government’s prosecutor, Graham Sykes and Detective Sergeant Andrew Finn of the Fraud Squad did not object.

Earlier, the group had gone, on their own accord, to the Fraud Squad headquarters on Duke Street, Kingston, on the basis of a deal brokered with the police on Friday that prevented their arrest and a long weekend in jail.

At the Fraud Squad, where the accused turned up with their lawyers, large groups of supporters gathered outside the building, attempting to thwart press photographers by holding up newspapers to shield Williams and the others.

It took about two hours for the formality of charges to be laid and summonses served, after which Williams and the others were whisked away to the courthouse, about two-and-a-half miles away, in unmarked police cars. Their supporters followed.

At the Half Way Tree Court, Resident Magistrate Gayle’s courtroom was packed. So too was the courtyard and the corridors.

Many people openly expressed relief when the news filtered out that Williams and the others had been granted bail.

Operation PRIDE is a scheme aimed at providing homes for working class people in which the government puts up the land and potential beneficiaries participate by becoming members of provident societies through which they save to finance the development. Beneficiaries can also contribute through sweat equity.

But to ensure the projects moved ahead while the contributors built up their capital, the government advanced the cash for land development, for which, according to the rules, it is to be reimbursed.

But cops said Williams and his co-conspirators, using a plethora of schemes, including the issuing of phony certificates for work that was not done, were able to siphon huge sums of money from the projects into Danwill, which, like its owner, is also under indictment.

The charges against Williams, his company and co-accused range from fraud, forgery, uttering forged documents to conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to deceive, obtaining money by false pretence and demanding property on forged documents.

In making his case for the charges against the group, Sykes zeroed in on the St Benedicts Heights project whose job verification certificates, he said, were riddled with irregularities. The same thing, he said, was seen on the other projects.

“Invoices show that payment certificates numbers three to 15 were signed with the name Mr Henry in the capacity of quantity surveyor,” he told the court. “The real quantity surveyor said he is not Mr Henry and doesn’t know who Mr Henry is.”

Operation PRIDE has been the subject of complaints of corruption, mismanagement and favouritism since it was launched in the mid-1990s and Williams, a strong supporter of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP), has long been on the receiving end of the finger-pointing. A late 1990s parliamentary document revealed that Williams’ construction company, for instance, had received nearly a third, in terms of dollar value, of the Operation PRIDE jobs.

As part of a reorganisation of the scheme to fend off the claims of corruption, Operation PRIDE was brought under the umbrella of the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC).

But early last year an internal audit by NHDC, which found its way into the public realm, pointed to fraud and corruption in Operation PRIDE, leading to a police investigation.

At the same time, Prime Minister P J Patterson named retired civil servant, Erwin Angus to lead a commission of inquiry into the project.

Angus found substantial breaches of Cabinet policy guidelines, major overruns on projects as well as possible fraud.

But his most damning indictment was of former housing and water minister, Dr Karl Blythe, who was blasted as interventionist and for running the scheme like “a brotherhood” with a coterie of close advisors. There was no accusation, however, that Blythe had done anything illegal, rather that he overstepped his ministerial bounds.

Blythe, however, was forced to resign.

A later review of the Angus report by former solicitor-general, Dr Ken Rattray, sought to exculpate Blythe, arguing that the former minister had been denied natural justice and the right of reply during the probe. It also claimed that Angus’ committee had reached conclusions that were wrong in law.

However, based on the police investigation, the director of public prosecutions, Kent Pantry, last week ordered that charges be laid against the seven who appeared in court yesterday.

At yesterday’s proceedings attorney Caroline Reid represented Sibbles and Hill, while Deborah Martin represented Nash and Dawkins.

Porter and Kirkland were represented by attorneys Jack Hinds and Walter Scott, respectively.

The charges

Danhai Williams, Danwill Construction and Carl Kirkland

Forgery 26 counts

Uttering forged documents 28

Demanding property on forged documents 28

Conspiracy to defraud 3

Conspiracy to deceive 1

Obtaining money by false pretence 1

Warren Sibbles

Fraud 3

Donovan Hill

Conspiracy to defraud 2

Eujenny Porter

Fraud 13

Wayne Nash

Fraud 14

Dwight Dawkins

Fraud 2