By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

AS the criminal trial of Long Island MP Adrian Gibson and others continued yesterday, an auditor at the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) testified that the records for a water tank painting project were “badly” done.

Dian Saunders-Adderley, WSC’s assistant general manager, made the comments during cross-examination by defence attorney Damian Gomez KC.

Mrs Adderley said the objective of her investigation was to see if projects were properly approved and managed. She also assessed if the benefits outweighed the costs.

She further said her audit investigated vendors with payments in excess of $500,000.

She said a project that totalled $603,000 was badly managed, according to her report. She also admitted to raising her eyebrow at the corporation’s water tank painting project.

Mrs Adderley claimed that the records for the million dollar projects were done “badly”.

She was also critical of board minutes.

Mrs Adderley said she went to the Baillou Hill Project and saw work and painting was being done.

She told Mr Gomez the project had to be approved for payment changes.

Mr Gomez noted a job jacket spoke to a phase one of painting one tank.

He pointed out that the words “Winton” and “Baillou Hill Low Level” were crossed out in this document.

While she acknowledged he was correct, Mrs Adderley argued the price had not been crossed out.

She disagreed the remaining tanks had not been painted, but agreed the project referred to two tanks at Winton and three at Baillou Hill.

Mrs Adderley agreed the creation of the job jacket was the responsibility of the engineering department.

Adrian Gibson, former executive chairman of WSC, has been on trial since November 2023 alongside Mr Donaldson Jr, former general manager, Joan Knowles, Peaches Farquharson, and Jerome Missick. The charges relate to contracts awarded during Gibson’s tenure.

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

Meanwhile, representing the Crown are Director of Public Prosecutions Cordell Frazier, Cashena Thompson, Karine MacVean, and Rashied Edgecombe.