GENERAL manager of Petrojam Winston Watson was called a liar in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Wednesday by attorney-at-law Bert Samuels, who accused him of sacrificing the integrity of his client, Dr Perceval Bahado Singh, by sending him e-mails demanding that he pay back more than US$75,000 for airline tickets for which he allegedly made claims.

Singh is a former chairman of Petrojam, who served in the position from 2016 to 2018 and resided overseas during the tenure of his chairmanship.

The matter is now the central focus of a trial which began on Monday in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

Samuels insisted during cross-examination of Watson that his response to the situation at the time was influenced by politics. He quizzed Watson on whether he was aware of Singh’s attendance at a function to open the Edward Seaga Building on Marcus Garvey Drive in St Andrew which serves as Petrojam’s corporate office. He was asked if he attended the opening of the building and if Singh was present. Watson replied, saying he was present there and believed that Singh was also there. But Samuels challenged his response, telling him that Singh participated in the event in his capacity as chairman and questioned why Watson could not remember definitively.

“You asked him to return the money, over US$1,000 for his visit to the opening of the Edward Seaga building,” Samuels said, suggesting that his client did nothing wrong by participating in the function and that he was treated unfairly.

Watson admitted to making the request for the money to be reimbursed and accepted that Singh did nothing wrong by attending the function.

Trying to ascertain a motive for his stance against the former chairman, Samuels asked Watson if the issue of Singh’s chairmanship was politically charged. Watson said, “Yes, at the time.”

Watson told the court that he demanded that Singh return the monies for that and other travels and that he is aware that some of it was returned.

Samuels asked him why he also demanded that Singh repay the company for a surprise birthday party which was staged for him.

“How do you ask someone to pay back for a surprise birthday party? Did it concern you that you were making a request for refund for meetings that he could have attended? What motivated you to make the demand?” Samuels probed.

Watson said an investigation was done and it was found that the chairman should have resided in Jamaica and all these travels that were within the United States were part of the demands. Samuels quizzed whether Watson has ever refunded money given to him for overseas travels and he said yes, where the circumstances required it.

Samuels concluded that Watson was not part of the investigations and therefore made the demands for reimbursement without knowing whether or not Singh was present at these meetings.

“I suggest that you came under political pressure when you made the demands,” Samuels said, to which Watson responded, “No!”