THE North-West Liaison Office of the United National Congress (UNC) is said to have paid then Prime Minister Basdeo Panday US $50,000 a few days before the 2000 general election which the UNC secured with victory in 19 of the 36 constituencies.

The alleged instruction to Republic Bank, Long Circular Branch, to pay Panday through the North-West Liaison Office on December 4, 2000, was signed by former North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) chairman Dr. Tim Gopeesingh and Ramesh Sharma, the then Chief Executive Officer of NWRHA.

The bank draft was reportedly issued on December 7, 2000, four days before the 2000 general election (December 11).

The cheque, dated November 29, 2000, was reportedly a donation to the UNC’s general election campaign.

Interestingly though, Mitra and Sally Ramkhelawan were listed as directors of the controversial Optimum Energy Technologies (OET), a firm listed as an industrial and medical gases supply company with the Registrar of Companies, which secured an $11.8 million contract from two senior executives of the NWRHA, bypassing the NWRHA or Tenders Committee.

OET identified the nature of its business as “processing and sale of industrial and medical gases and fuels”.

In June 2001, Auditor General Jocelyn Thompson stated in her report to Parliament that the OET contract was signed by two of NWRHA’s executive officers, but no evidence of approval and ratification of the contract by the NWRHA Board and Tenders Commit-tee were produced, although the value of the contract surpassed the $1 million mark.