Former Public Works Minister off to jail

Balesar’s nearly two-year trial concluded on December 30, 2008 with him being found guilty on ten charges of corruption and saw him sentenced to two years in prison. Additionally, he was barred from holding any public office for a period of five years.

The ex-minister was found guilty of issuing fraudulent government contracts totaling roughly 88,000 Surinamese dollars (US $32,000) for the cleanup of fictitious garbage dump sites. Each of the twenty-two fraudulent contracts amounted to less than US $1,450 as larger sums would have had to be approved by the Council of Ministers.

“These are very serious indictable offences committed together with other individuals. With these acts they have caused serious damage to the state,” the prosecutor general, Subhas Punwasi, argued during the trial.

Balesar maintained his innocence throughout the trial, and went as far as to claim that he was being framed by his co-workers.

However, it was the same fifteen co-workers who testified against their former minister in the trial and helped convict him by stating that the scam against the state was his idea from the beginning and “entirely motivated by greed”.

Because of their testimony against the minister, the co-workers received reduced sentences of varying months in prison for similar charges of fraud and embezzlement of state funds. ~~Adz:Right~~

Former Public Works Minister Dewanand Balesar

PARAMARIBO, Suriname- DEWANAND BALESAR, Suriname’s Minister of Public Works from 2000-2005, has been incarcerated after recently being found guilty on fraud, forgery and theft of government funds.